RDU Neil

Re: Re: Modern & "Realistic" I pute "realistic" in quotes for a reason. If you want realism, you don't game. Just live your boring, no guns and violence life. As for "gritty" well, that is feel over content, ususally. A superhero campaign can be very "gritty" with lots of blood and death. I'm more talking about a more normal human level of game... whether or not death happens. Yes, "24" isn't realistic in that death defying events happen every hour, and Jack lives through them all... but individually, no one event is beyond probability. There's no hanging from chandeliers, or ice palaces, or laser death beams, or battles in gadget laden cars, like in the latest Bond film. I've had old Danger International adventures that were far from gritty, and were funny, goofy... and violence was running from a barfight in order to not get busted by the cops. I don't know how else to describe this 'closer to normal' level of game than "realistic"... even though I know it's not really realistic.

I totally agree that a "campaign" of Danger International is very hard to maintain. Characters die or get badly hurt, paralyzed, or other retire... so one shot games, or mini-campaigns... two or three episodes... are best. I think this reason... more than possible death of a character... keeps players away. So many players want to develop a character to the nth degree. They want to play a character forever... which I've never understood. I like to play a character, until they fulfill their mission/objective... or die trying... but after that, eh... what's next. The idea of playing a character every week, over and over... really gets boring to me. Probably why I GM most of the time... so I can enjoy world building, plots, and lots of other characters, rather than just one. Superheroics and other "larger than life" character concepts, allow for players to justify their character living through weekly life or death battles. When you start leaning toward a more realistic level of game, verisimilitude is quickly lost, if players cheat death every week.

Example description... This is off the top of my head, at work, without reference... but I think it is a good example of what can be helpful in a "powers book" for new players. Ice Powers: With these powers, your character can project a solid ice ram, freeze a target in a block of ice, create a wall or sheet of ice, move quickly by projecting a thin film of ice to slide upon, and project razor sharp shards of ice in a spray. The Ice Ram does 10d6 normal damage vs. physical defensese, at a range of up to 500 meters. The ice block keeps a target from moving, and only if they can use their STR to break the 5 Defense/5 Body block, can they get out... or other characters can try to break it with their powers. The wall is the same... 5 Defense/5 Body. The ice sheet adds 10" of ground movement with the ability to take up to 4 other people with you. The ice shards do 1 and 1/2d6 Killing damage emanating in a cone spray from the characters position, to a total of 20 meters wide, at a distance of 20 meters from the character. Then print the Multi-power that looks something like... 50 pts MP Ice Powers -- 10d6EB -- Ice Rame -- 5d6 Entangle -- Ice Block/Wall -- +10" Running, Usable By others -- Ice Slide -- 1 1/2d6RKA, Cone AE, No Range -- Shard Spray Again, this is rough... but I think it gets the idea across for new players.

Thanks Geoff... and Wombatman... I'm glad a couple of folks agree with me. A couple of posts ahead of yours, Steve does describe the basic layout of the book, and it sounds like it will do some of what we are talking about, here. A basic description of what the powers do... gradually moving into the rules heavy legalese of the "system." This could work, as long as the layout is clear and not too text heavy. If beginning players can look at one small area, read a description and a flat point cost... boom... ready to go... then YAY!

Any of you folks out there watching "24" or "The Shield?" How about movies like Gene Hackman's "The Package" or more recently "Narc" or slightly over the top "The Bourne Identity" This style of adventure... realistic, violent, suspenseful... all about grit and guns and terrorism and espionage... does anyone play these kind of campaigns... or even mini-campaigns or one shots? See... I love this kind of game. No superheroics, no "cinematic" action... real world laws and concerns... characaters who logically DON'T want to get shot at... weapons are deadly... etc. I think I'm alone in loving this level of game. Everyone else I know, and all the posts on these boards, are all about larger than life Player Charcters, magic, super powers, etc. I like this stuff, too, but I miss the days of "Danger International" if you folks remember that old Hero System product from the '80s. Some of the greatest adventures I've ever run, or been involved in, were like a good cop drama or suspense film, and NOT a comic book or Action movie. I guess I just wonder if anyone out there is playing this kind of game at all. I really miss it.

Hardcover for one thing... Yes... Hardcover... black... with a nice piece of artwork on the front that does NOT wrap around the back... so the spine is clean black, with just the title and Hero # visible. As for content... I'll start with some reasoning. I'm trying M&M right now... not because it is a better system, but because they made the game so appealing and user friendly. I think the same thing can be done by Hero. See, M&M starts with the basic "super power" concept... say "Ice Power" with real word descriptions of what all it can do... and only then can you, if you want, look deeply into the power and see that it is built by a combination of effects, just like Hero. Hero does it the other way around. It gives a bunch of generic effects, with very little flavor to them, from which an EXPERIENCED player can build all kinds of "super powers." This is fine... except that it lacks the "Zap" "Pow" "Bing" for new players of simply going... "I want Ice Power... oh, here they are on Pg. such and such..." scribble down simple cost on character sheet... done. It can work in Hero this way. You should have simple, half page, real language description of powers labled things like "Ice Powers" "Time Powers" "Speed Powers" etc. Give flat costs like 57 pts for "Basic Ice Powers" with simple description, so people can plug and play. THEN, in the back, linked by a footnote, have the actual points and powers in Champions terms... since Ice Powers would likely be a Multi-power, with five or six slots... the total of which comes to 57 pts. or whatever. There you have clear plug-n-play powers to introduce new players, but all the detailed rules are there... in back... for them to explore as they increase their knowledge. Show those M&M types that Hero can be just as user friendly by doing some work for them. Make their first glance at a Hero Product a flavorful, interesting and engaging one, so they WANT to play Hero. The rules are in place... now I'd suggest moving away from text heavy, rules laden, minutia crunching... and write for new Hero players who want to jump in and just go.