Herolover

Someone asked me an interesting question and it raises a question. The special effect wanted is actually a conversion from another game system. In this game system when a mage cast spells he performs a skill. The mage rolls skill dice and adds up the total. When he finally gets a total high enough (after several turns) his spell is cast. I was thinking of RSR, but using RSR it would mean that some spells would take three+ RSR. So what is the rule on multiple RSR limitations on the same power? The rules list two, can you do more than two and if so what are the effects?

I actually like Sovereign Stone. I have the SS D20 books and have read them, but never actually played them. Doing a SS magic system in HERO is difficult, but not impossible. It all comes down to the requires skill roll limitation. 1) Buy the new FH book. I am in the playtest and it is a very good book. Also, in I think September the Fantasy Spell book will be out which will be a great help. Breaking SS down it comes to the fact that some spells are harder to cast therefore requiring more time and effort on the mage. That said all spells must have the limitation RSR. Harder spells have RSR multiple times. Use Extra Time to make RSR take a half phase to perform. As a mage's skill goes up he can loos the RSR on simple spells and on spells with more than one RSR he can bring it down to one RSR. I am sure if I put more thought into this I could do soomething close, but I have my own magic system to work on.

Okay. Here is the deal. I am going to be running a FH campaign and I am working on a magic system. Problem is I have run into a brick wall concering a couple of things. I have most of the system down, but a couple of things are bugging me. --Spells are mental formulas that mages learn to use an energy called “aether.†Mages use “aether†to summon beings from other or have things occur in the material world. Mages acquire this “aether†from other planes and items in the material world. --All spells cost END. This use of “aether†is very is very strenuous and causes great strain on a mage. --In some areas of the material world the barrier between the planes is weak allowing spells to be cast more easily while in other areas the barrier between the planes is very strong causing spells to be difficult to cast. In some rare areas a mage is unable to draw upon aether and is unable to cast spells. --Mages write there spells into spellbooks. It is from these spellbooks that mages memorize their spells. Each mage is able to memorize a number of spells I want to achieve two main goals: 1) Mages will spend their own END to cast spells. This will simulate the strain it is to cast spells. 2) Mages occasionally need to refresh their spells, therefore all mages keep spellbooks. First. If a mage can just cast spells without "memorizing their spells" why would they need to right them down in a book? This is why I feel I need the memorizing thing to explain why spellbooks exist. The problem I have is coming up with a mechanic for the memorizing thing. I don't like the idea of charges because how do you decide what spell gets how many charges? If you have any ideas please talk up. For those of you that don't have any ideas here is an idea I have. All Mages purchase a small END pool and REC. The REC has the limitation that it will not work until the mage has studied his spell book for a period of time. All spells have the limitation: When casting spell 1/2 END must be paid by personal END. How much would that limitation be worth? What do you think?

Congratulations on wise choices. First, I have played 3e and I actually don't think it is too bad. That said her is some information for you. 1) Can you afford $30.00? If so go buy 10 issues of Digital Hero (look to your right.) This will get you into the playtest and you can download the 709 page PDF of the Fantasy Hero manuscript that will be out at Gen Con. Trust me, you will find it worth it and I am not even counting the issues of Digital Hero which is pretty good itself. Then buy Fantasy HERO when it comes out. 2) It can be very hard to break people into the HERO system. I feel you are making a mistake in transferring over a D&D campaign. If it is D&D leave it in D&D. Instead start a new campaign with a new setting that emphasis the things you can't do with D&D. For example new and different magic systems. The main thing is show them WHY Hero is better than D&D. Remember players won't things their characters can do so show them that they can do things with HERO that they couldn't with D&D. Keep it Simple. Don't worry about getting all the HERO rules right. This is something that many people worry far to much about. Don't bog the game down in numbers. Latter, as your group grows more familiar and like HERO more, you can break more of the rules in. I have gone through this and it can be hard, but time and patients do work.

Elfwood. Wow. Um...need to sticky this. AlHazred You have won my undying thanks and devotion. I never knew a site like Elfwood existed. Holy cow. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

If your are interested in playing Superheroes I would recommend in order of perference the USPD and the Champions book (NOT Champions Universe.) The USPD (Until Super Powers Database) is almost a must have if you or your players are not familiar with the HERO system. It has many, many powers made up ready to plug into a character. Really, you don't even need to make characters with this book you just plug the powers in. I can't recommend it enough and SUPERs isn't even my favorite genre. After that I would recommend the Champions book. Great information on comics and running a Supers campaign. Lots of generic genre stuff. Champions Universe is basicaly a description and information book on the setting used by HERO system.

Wow. A lot of great links. I have started to do the save picture thing as well. I have used it often for supers, but I am coming to find that I need some Fantasy images as well. Believe me I wish I could afford to pay for art. However, with my budget I am lucky to get game books. So, since I have to make a choice....

Okay here is the problem. I am working on my Fantasy Hero campaign and instead of saying, "Well it looks like this." I want to be able to show my players. Problem is, I am talentless as far as art goes. I do good on stick figures, but little else. So, what websites or rpg books do you get your art from?

This art is awesome. Perhaps this should be the start of a Fantasy Art thread were people could post their Fantasy Art? HINT HINT HINT. I would start off, but I have a Physical Limiations: Talentless.

I personally disagree with this. I could easily buy FF and say the bullets missed me and when I do take some damage say "well, I dodged but they grazed me." + levels with DCV could also be to "dodge bullets." The examples you give are not wrong, but they are your interpetation and not the only possible interpetation.

Very interesting question. The problem with this in HERO system is that "dodging bullets" is pretty much a special effect. It could be the special effect for any of the Defensive powers or could just be the GM'ing saying "He missed so you must have dodged the bullets." As a rule, I would say it depended greatly upon the genre. For low level "heroic-genres" I would pretty much rule out "dodging bullets." In Champions I would say it depends upon the power in question and the character concept. I have some characters that are not hit because they "dodge bullets," but because they are lucky and "things just happen to get in the way." Otherwise I would say you would have to at least have 27 DEX.

Re: Round Two... FIGHT I consider the UMA as one of the basic books of the HERO System. It is useful in any campaign in which players will fight hand-to-hand or with weapons. And yes I mean any campaign. I have both and would reccomend you get both, but you could do without Ninja Hero unless you were going to run an Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, medeival China, or Dragonball Z campaign. Even then with UMA you could easily do it. Let me put it this way you don't need Ninja to use UMA, but you pretty much need UMA to use Ninja.

You guys are just sick... Except for the the Gargoyles. I always thought that was a great show and would have made an absolutely fantastic dark modern campaign.

I am somewhat knowledgeable in the military area of things and it is common for ships today to have two or even three different methods of providing energy for movement. Take a current Nuclear submaraine as an example. Yes, it has one propeller, but it has several different methods of turning that propeller. Military ships, at least the capital ships, are very expensive and important. I would say that it would seem plausible that ships would have very big displacer drives, used for the majority of travel, with small hyperdrives used in emergencies. Which would you drather have a 50 million dollar battleship that couldn't get out of a fight quickly or one that could?

.Someone mentioned something like this earlier, but I am going to expand on it. Forget mechanics. Sometimes HERO fans get to caught up in game mechanics and forget the game (I know I used to be one.) Don't worry so much if a villian does or doesn't have a power. If they need, they have it. To a certain point same goes for PC's. If a PC wants to do a cool new trick or something different with their power let them. Now if they want to do it all the time that is when you make them spend points. Look at the skill POWER for more of an idea of this kind of thing. I am thinking of making it a mandatory skill in my Champions campaign. Don't worry about having villians actually made up. Just be sure to be consistant. Many times I have gone into combat not knowing a villians powers only to say okay he has OCV/DCV 9, 15 DEF, and his main attack is a 15d6 EB. Not much, but my players never knew. Fudge combat. Let me say that again Fudge combat. What fun is it when the nemisis villian is knocked out in the first segment? It is a lot funner when the players are worried about wether or not they will win. Which reminds me. Don't be scarred to have the players actually loose. Remember how you play is your choice. For me this is a roleplaying game not a tactical board game.

Skills. Okay. Lets us see here. 1) Expand the Computer programing skill as per Star Hero page 41. I won't go into it here (you should buy the book), but it is expanded much like the System Operation skill is expanded in the back of the FRED. 2) PS: Hacker. 3) Cryptography 4) Analyze Computer System 3) KS: Boy this list could get long quick, but some ideas are Hacking, Computer programs, ICE. 4) Use the existing skill list, but change the skill so that it is usable only in "netrunning". I would have the base skill be bought for 2 points with a +1 to raise the skill by +1. Examples are: Computer Acting: Allows you to pretend you really belong in system when you don't. Computer Bureacratics: You know how to get things done and where to go in a computer system. Computer Concealment: You know how to hide bugs or even your self in a computer system. Computer Defense Manuever: You get an extra warning and defense when the system attacks you. Computer Demolitions: You know how to set up viruses to "go off" and damage a system. Computer Disguise: You know how to make your self look like someone else or like you belong in a system/ I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Now computer hacking is a bunch of skill rolls. IMO most of these should be provided by "programs" and the "computer/deck" the player is using.

I think you are falling into a trap that is easy for Herogames to fall into. We get so worried about the points and how things are written up within the rules that we forget how simple some things can be. 1) I assume you are playing a heroic level campaign where the players pay money for buying equipment not points. This is just like any other game system. 2) So your players want to "modify" equipment. Rule #1 forget game mechanics. Can the equipment be modified? How hard is it to modify the equipment? These are questions that you as the GM are going to have to answer based upon the campaign setting (in this case Star Wars.) You mention Droids so I will use that as an example. If the Droid is a PC or follower than yes, I would make the character pay points AND Money for any changes made in the character. It isn't fair for a Droid PC to be able to plop down extra money for increased STR when a normal player must pay points for it. (I would handle Cyberneticts this way as well, points AND money.) Now if the droid is just a piece of equipment than I wouldn't worry about it. If you were playing a nomral modern campaign you wouldn't charge a player for adding hubcaps to his car right? Now if a player wants to put a major gun in a small droid then that should be roleplayed out. Forget mechanics. I don't think this is the answer you want, but there really isn't a good answer for this question. As someone else pointed out just because something is built doesn't mean it should be modified or everyone would do it.

IMO how you treat hacking/netrunning/computer B&E all depend upon the importance that it takes within the campaign. I recommend Hero Games: Cyber Hero and Gurps: Cyberpunk. These have been stated before, but they are really that good. Kazie 5, also by Hero, does have some good comments about how to do this kind of thing. Anyhoo...as I see it there are 3 kinds of "net-running." 1) Very little importance. This is the campaign in which there is little or no importance placed on computers and hacking. This can be done by a simple skill roll with a single modifier representing the complexity and defenses of the hacked system. 2) Some importance, but not enough to represent a whole other section of the game. I think this is what you really want. The way I would handle this is to have the hacking be a series of dice rolls not just a single roll. Computers, information, and other equipment would be plusses or minuses to skill rolls. (Imagine your "Decker" going crazy trying to get that "Deck" that provides a +3 to his roll.) You could make some "maneuvers" such as you use in combat and have the “hacking†session last several rolls. Example: Joe wants to break into the local gaming companies forum and post messages giving information about their secret project. Joe knows that he has a decent computer that gives him a +2 and he knows some passwords giving him a +2. Joe also knows that the company’s security is very tight. The GM decides that the company’s security gives Joe a -2 to all his rolls. The GM decides that to break into the system without giving his position away means Joe must make 4 successful rolls and can only fail once (Joe doesn’t know these numbers.) Then to successfully put his message on the board Joe must make a further 6 successful rolls and can only fail twice. 3) True Netrunning is most of the campaign. In this type of campaign Netrunning is best used as some form of Extra-Dimensional movement where the player takes on another persona with powers.

I wouldn't assume that just because the heroes interrupted a villians plan once he would hunt them down. If they continued to interrupt the same villians plans all the time then sure I could see a hunted. To second what someone else said. Dr. Destroyer and Mechanon hunteds are two things I don't allow even on the lowest level. They are just to powerful. I had one player that wanted to take a Dr.Destroyer hunted on 8- and I told him that if I ever rolled 8- I would just take his character and he could play a new one. No point in playing it out.

Okay. I gotta ask. With the new Matrix movies coming out I am wondering if anyone is going to be doing a Matrix Hero? If you are or plan to do a Matrix Hero how are you going to do it? In the "real world" (ie not the Matrix) I would say make the characters up as 150 point characters with NCM or, if you assume that things "loaded into you" stay with you than you could base it on more points, but I have no idea how many you would need. You could run that part of the campaign as your basic sci-fi, post apocolypse campaign. The Matrix would be easy to run since it is basically extra dimensional movement where the characters are basically built as 350-400 point characters. What does everyone else think?

Okay bare with me here. I have a group that is...well...let us just say that they aren't to excited about playing a science fiction campaign. I on the other hand would love to GM a good sci-fi campaign my problem is that I don't know what campaign to use. The system should be obvious. No, I have Star Hero and Terran Empire. I haven't decided if I want to use Terran Empire or not, but I am thinking about it. So here I am planning to start a sci-fi campaign and looking for a setting when I thought this would be a good question for the HERO boards. What do you like in a science fiction setting? What do you look for as a player? What do you look for as a GM? What things do you like and what things do you dislike? In creating your own settings what do you include?

I feel a a high CON should offer protection against diseases as a minor side effect. However, it appears that the way many diseases are "built" using game mechanics that a high CON offers NO protection against. Of what I have seen most diseases are built as various drains, attacks, or other esoteric powers and against these a high CON offers little protection though a high CON can extend the onset of the illness to the point that it takes longer to effect the character (for CON drains atleast). In games where disease are built using powers a high CON offers little protection it would appear. However, in heroic games where a CON roll might be used to avoid an infection a high CON does offer protection against diseases. This is one area of the HERO system that appears to be vague. If diseases are built as powers they should require the victim to make a CON roll or otherwise consider the victims CON and I haven't seen many diseases made up that do this. (Or atleast I have missed them.)

Here is a neat question. I, at my players behest, am going to be running a "X-Men type campaign." However, the characters are not mutants. I am pretty sure I know what I am going to do, but I am wonderiing what HEROdom out there would do. How would you run the "underground" super team campaign without mutants?

I have had the opportunity to run a prologue adventure(s) several times. 1) Make sure the prologue sets up a campaign. Don't use it to just "run an adventure." Run an adventure that sets up the campaign and makes your players go...ummm why did that happen. 2) Don't run an adventure that gives away a campaign secret.

Done that, been there. First, understand something. I am a HERO fanboy. I LOVE HERO. I try to convert everything to hero. I HAVE converted everything to HERO. Shadowrun (I did it.) Spelljammer (I did it.) So many games I don't even want to think about it. However, Deadlands is one game I won't convert. The original system is just too good and lends to much a feel to the game. I reccomend everyone play it. That said, I did have a player that wanted to play a "Huckster" in a Champions campaign I was running. First the player bought a "Power" Skill roll based on ego. This was his "Hexing ability." Secondly the all powers had Requires Hex roll, side effects, and gestures (cards appear when the huckster cast his "spell" (called hex in Deadlands.) All hexes were placed into a multipower. When the player wanted to cast a hex he decided how many points he put into the power and made his roll. This isn't exactly per the Deadlands game, but then again I don't think there is anyway to correctly convert this over into the HERO system.