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Instant Coffee

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  1. Thanks
    Instant Coffee reacted to Doc Democracy in My own super hero rpg system   
    I think Marvel/DC is the skin you stretch over the framework of rules you might choose to stretch over it.  Neither Marvel nor DC require any particular mechanics, they simply provide the colour and the direction your characters will take.
     
    Your first decision has to be how the game plays, if you know it is going to be high power and involve lots of fighting then you need to think how complex your game is going to be, how much you are looking to simulate the characters or whether it will be more narratively driven.
     
    It is actually quite difficult to come up with something that is novel and so you are usually best looking at a system that is close to what you want to play, take it apart a bit, throw some bits away, add the things you want and then try to smooth over the edges....
     
    What superhero RPGs have you played, what is your favourite and why??  If you can answer those questions you are getting closer to beginning your journey.
  2. Haha
    Instant Coffee reacted to Hugh Neilson in Rolling Defenses   
    If you have 10d6 Mind Control, your average roll would be 35.  That would be +25 versus a 10 EGO, or +5 versus 20 EGO and 10 Mental Defense.
     
    That suggests that 1 EGO or mental defense should average 1 "defense".  3 is Standard Effect for 1d6, so you could just divide the total by 3 and roll that many d6.
     
    Once we start rolling defenses, though, as LoneWolf notes, the game slows down.  That could be mitigated by providing that both attack and defense are (say) 3d6 + "stat minus 10" (or just 3d6 + Stat - everyone is getting an extra 10 points for free) so 15d6 Mind Control is 3d6 + 36 (standard effect on 12 dice) against 20 EGO and 10 Mental Defense is 3d6 + 20 (standard effect for the first 20 of 30 resistance).
     
    Results also become more volatile as a high or low roll on defenses is as possible as a high or low roll for attack.  Limiting the dice would mitigate that as well.
     
    What change in the mechanics or feel are you trying to achieve?  With no objective in mind, this feels like a solution in search of a problem.
  3. Thanks
    Instant Coffee reacted to unclevlad in Rolling Defenses   
    Yeah, it's not that we're implicitly against variable defenses per se...but that they won't work, OR, that to make them work, you'll need complex, unique mechanics, in a system that's already knocked for being too complex.  The area where it isn't complex is, the basic mechanics of rolls is consistent among the classes of rolls.  This by itself means that variable defenses starts with 2 strikes against it for me.
  4. Thanks
    Instant Coffee reacted to Ninja-Bear in Sell Me on Heroes In A Hurry   
    At $20, when I get a chance, I’ll likely just pick it up. I’m sure it’ll be useful.
  5. Thanks
    Instant Coffee reacted to Sketchpad in Sell Me on Heroes In A Hurry   
    So the description is a bit sparse for Heroes in a Hurry, and I'm wondering a few things...
    Is it basically templates for powers, skills, etc.? Is there anything there for the veteran player? What types of heroes can be made using it? Are there specific power types?
  6. Thanks
    Instant Coffee reacted to BigJackBrass in Sell Me on Heroes In A Hurry   
    Obviously not a free peek, but the PDF was released in sections through the Hero Patreon. I've been laid low by covid and a post-covid lung infection, so although I have the files I've yet to even start reading them, I'm afraid. 
     
    Glancing at it now, there are indeed nine sample characters at the end of the book. The format is various modules you assemble to make a character. I'll put a screenshot of the ToC here, which of course I'll remove if it's not acceptable to do so:
     

  7. Thanks
    Instant Coffee reacted to greypaladin_01 in HDR HEROsystem   
    I also agree about the granularity aspect, but I also am in the camp that finds 3d30 to be unduly cumbersome and clunky.   
     
    1 - It would be the ONLY place in HERO that does not use d6s  (d3 is the same and d6, lets be fair)
    2 - It creates the need for players to buy specialty dice that do not come in any standard dice packs.  I don't even recall the last time I saw a d30 at any local game shops.  
    3 - I have personal experience using just 1d30 back in houserules from the AD&D days... and they were HORRIBLE.   Dice the size of golf balls that roll and roll.... over half the time they would go right off the table and people would have to hunt them down.   The readable face is a little hard to identify given the size of the dice.    I shudder even trying to imagine keeping 3 of them active and controlled at table play.   (Sure this is just anecdotal... but this was a 3 year long game that played twice a month with average of 5-7 players... so not an inconsequential sample size.   And for the record, it NEVER really got much better as far as using them at table)
  8. Thanks
    Instant Coffee reacted to unclevlad in HDR HEROsystem   
    So base STR is 15 points per????  Because it affects skill rolls...that STR doesn't even have.  There are no default STR skills.  What about DEX or INT, which are skills-heavy?   
     
    What about END costs, how do those change?   
     
    And if STR is 15 points per, then what's HA?  What's Blast?  What's a martial arts DC?  Defenses.  Special purpose powers like Invis.  None of these have any connection to skills.  Worse, what's the cost of, say, Counterstrike, which has +2 OCV, +2 DCV? 
     
    You have to work through the entire system to see what indirect balance effects you're creating.  I guarantee you'll screw it up.  No question.  I promise I would too;  it's too complex a problem NOT to mess it up.
     
    And man...in the standard base cost with advantages and limitations...you're making the math that much harder because the numbers are suddenly MUCH bigger. Many people don't LIKE doing that much math;  they have a hard enough time with the scales in RAW, much less suddenly blowing things up to 7500 points...a 500 point character.  And as LW says...for what?  Even you're killing the granularity of the system you propose by just rescaling everything to fit.   
     
    Scott:  I think the abbreviations are mostly standard...just not English standard.  Spanish, I presume?
     
    Try something different.  2 ideas:
    1.  skill rolls --> 7 + V / 3 rather than V / 5.
    2.  skill rolls --> 9 + V / 3, or maybe 10 + V / 3....but on 3d8.  Skill costs don't need to change, and you're not changing combat calculations that much either.  The key there would be the change in the probability to hit given the delta between the attacker's OCV and defender's DCV.  It would change things but it wouldn't be that radical.  OR, alternately, roll skills and perceptions on 3d8 but leave the combat rolls alone.
  9. Thanks
    Instant Coffee reacted to LoneWolf in HDR HEROsystem   
    I have to agree that this does not seem like a good idea.  This looks like a solution in search of a problem.  The Hero system is already complex enough without adding more granularity.  One of the biggest complaints people have about the Hero System is the math is to complex.  This makes that situation even worse.   All this is going to do is to slow down the game to a point you are going have to have a computer to play the game.   That is going to turn off a huge amount of players and make it unlikely anyone is going to want to play the game.
     
    This is a bad idea that does nothing to improve the game.
  10. Thanks
    Instant Coffee reacted to unclevlad in HDR HEROsystem   
    I'm generally against most of what you're considering.  Some of these might work for a computer game, but not for a tabletop game.  They're too complex.
     
    Have you looked at the ripple effects?  What's the cost for STR, how does that fit into the massively rescaled points?  More generally, what's the cost for 1d6 of normal damage, and how does that fit into your overall points/costing structure?  There are 4 principle characteristics that connect to skill rolls:  DEX, EGO, INT, and PRE.  What happens to their cost, how does this impact the costs for CON or BODY?
     
    Perception is an important aspect.  Perception moves the game forward without needing the GM to play too many tricks, or make things seem too contrived.  14- PER succeeds 90% of the time, and that's pretty easy to reach at a reasonable cost.  With a huge "belly" where +1 to a roll doesn't really change things much...that super-granular approach...then how expensive will this become?
     
     
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