ShelleyCM

Re: What's the best method of introducing HERO System to newbies Come on -- 'fess up! How did it go? -Shelley

Re: Things We'd Like To See:PRIMUS

Re: What have you used Hero for? Nope, but it may help determine how that first adventure goes!

Re: What have you used Hero for? Is that a ticking time bomb or just a countdown clock?

Re: What have you used Hero for? I've run lots of games: Champions (Wild Cards, Elementals, Teen HERO, the Hudson Hawks), Fantasy HERO (just one: based on Teresa Edgarton's Green Lion Trilogy), Super Agents (PRIMUS, Chessmen, VIPER). But none terribly recently, though Regency HERO playtests commence late summmer! Ah, for the good old days. -Shelley

Re: What's the best method of introducing HERO System to newbies It's not so bad. I would make the characters up with the newbies, but only after having them describe what they wanted in a fair amount of detail. Then I'd walk them through sample combats (or using other skills) in an out of character way (non-threatening). It's worth it!! -Shelley

I've posted some of mine at http://mactyre.net/archives/characters/index.html -Shelley

For a while I suspected you were my husband, using some Secret Canadian Identity to post. But then I realized you knew the material too well to be Matthew. -Shelley

FWIW: At the time it was written (late 1997-early 1998), I think it was very good. It was dark (but it was easy enough to cut that stuff out), but bear in mind this was the heyday of the X-files and Babylon 5, so dark was appropriate. It's dated now, certainly; for one thing, the FBI it's based on is very different. The laws are different. And there are sentences in it that make me cringe if I find them again (my writing style has changed a lot). The bits I'm proud of: - the characters interweave with one another (that was criticized as being adapted from a campaign, but that wasn't really the case). - the characters themselves, because they were all very different from one another, and trust me, when you're writing agent after agent, that can be challenging. - that people wanted to run agent games again after reading it. - that people started using brownie points again. I think that's a great mechanic (AA used in the original Super Agents). At the time, the two biggest critiques were: - Iron Guard as a vehicle - OIHF and focus in one character. I don't mean to minimize the people who thought these were serious issues (just check the HML archives), but gaming mechanics to me are always just a mean to an end, and those fit the bill for what I'd envisioned. As for royalties, I used to. I haven't gotten a check in a long time -- two years? -- I guess need to email Darren about that again. And I don't use anything as-is either. Ever. If you don't like something in a product, change it! -Shelley

Dude, it totally rocks. Go buy the thing! -Shelley

My theory is that he's really the "Hairdresser of Justice," but the spell-check mangled the name. You know, he gave the Champions their lovely 'dos right before the big press-op combats. -Shelley (Who actually played in a game with HoJ at a long-lost DDC, and was deeply shocked any GM would permit it! )

Oooh! Post! Post! Post! -Shelley

The best thing I ever did for agents was run a VIPER campaign. The players were so good, so deadly as bad guys that they never treated VIPER as a joke again. -Shelley

I'm with Derek. I like to think of myself as the Agent Queen, but I don't cream players with them all the time (or even most of the time. Perhaps part of the time). -Shelley

Wow, that is SO not what I thought this thread was going to be about. Sorry. -Shelley

Just as long as there's a bottle opener! -Shelley

A long time ago, I ran PBEM games. I wrote a quick-n-dirty guide for how I handle it for Rogues' Gallery, and ultimately ended up posting it. http://mactyre.net/shelley/pbem.html (Yes, I have a page for everything. Really.) -Shelley

Re: Thanks Please do! -Shelley

The hints should be there from the beginning. Say a Senator is kidnapped, and the heroes save her, seemingly from a low-level group. They get awesome press for it....but later on, they realize it's all part of a larger plan. Say she gets injured in the "rescue" attempt and turns on them publicly and becomes very anti-hero. Or she's mind controlled and later introduces legislation to outlaw all paranormals. Or something. The Champions game I enjoyed running the most was my Hudson Hawks Campaign. Even though the plots were very different, I modelled things on Babylon 5, because I felt it was such great storytelling -- the characters were thoroughly established by the time the big events started coming down, and when they acted, for good or bad, it was completely consistent with how they'd been before. I loved it. But the foreshadowing element -- it makes a world feel SO much more consistent than if it's just 'fight of the night.' I can't remember exactly how I did things now in that HH game (It was almost 10 years ago....ack, getting old...) but I staggered things so that every other or every three games had an event that was leading to a "big" event. A throwaway encounter with someone in one game would lead to a subplot in the next. You know, stuff like that. If only I had time to run again! -Shelley

During the 1890s (and even now), wearing masks was illegal in New York. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1074259239632 Something to think about! -Shelley

My husband and I were just talking about a common problem in games, TV shows, and novels that we've noticed -- a tendency to get too grand too quickly. Given that these heroes are the only sanctioned heroes, the temptation is to give them BIG problems, BIG villains to fight, even early on. Heck, it'd be my temptation. So my advice is to start small: let them fight a bunch of thugs for a while -- focus on the human side to the characters first. Then slam 'em with the big threat later, after appropriate foreshadowing. It'll seem a LOT more powerful for the wait! -Shelley

Many, many moons ago, I had a knock-down drag-out with Matthew about this (figuratively, anyway). I was the GM and said no, he couldn't. Finally he wore me down and I allowed it -- I'd allow dive for cover with any movement, and I'm still OK with it now. (What I would allow PCs to dive for cover *from* was another knock-down drag-out!) -Shelley

You are SO a person after my own heart! Historical games rock! For references, there are a lot of websites out there geared towards historical romance writers -- they often have a lot of daily life issues crop up. Also, check out the big colonial tourism sites -- like Williamsburg -- for more. The best resources are still books, though. A few years back a nice coffee table book came out that would probably fit the bill (will get off butt and run downstairs...OK. Thomas Fleming's _Liberty_) that probably would fit the bill. If you want a detailed bibliography, I'd be happy to provide one. But Liberty would probably be enough detail to get the initial game going. Wait. I can't let this opportunity to peddle a website go by! Here's a little site that is now growing into a book for RPing from 1775-1820: http://mactyre.net/archives/regency/ -Shelley

No, cool! I'll go look. This is the first day I've posted here (or really looked) in ages. -Shelley

I wish you were here to run it! I have the original books. I have the GURPS CF books. I want to play it so badly! Since working on Regency HERO, I started planning on a new, playtest campaign (I'm working on the character creation part now.) For the test campaign, I think I'm going to include low-level psionics as a possibility, possibly alchemy as well. I felt bound by my no-magic no-psionics guidelines, because I was pretty firm when I started the 1793 game. (My husband gets annoyed when magic shows up in a no-magic game!) -Shelley