Doc Democracy

In an arm wrestling competition, possibly the definition of STR vs STR, how often do you think a STR 10 character should beat a STR 30 character?  Definitely not as often a 1 in 33 attempts...possibly never.

Go have a look at the Hero System Character archive.  There are hundreds of adaptations of DC and Marvel heroes, all modelled for HERO.  These might be useful straight up or they might need tweaking to work in your campaign.

Because it comes on top of everything else and all of the scaffolding is showing.

HERO out of the box does no hand holding demands system rather than game or setting based questions to be answered and the does not even have the decency to look cool once it is all over.

This thread has been interesting reading and @unclevlad makes a lot of good points.  I am leaning toward a slowish healing out of combat and combat healing coming with drawbacks, potentially being either hugely tiring to cast or actively damaging the healer.

That means out of combat things get better reasonably quickly but healing in combat is a fine balancing act unless it comes from some kind of magical item.

You should show us where you are, give us an idea of what you are thinking about.  There are LOADS of published powered armour characters, you could get quite generic help or focused, depending on what you are trying to achieve.

Been reading a lot about demi-humans recently, also thought it was on the boards that folk were talking about eleven being chaotic good and dwarves being lawful good.

In the Greyhawk HERO I am rustling up, I think that demi-humans will tend toward one or more of the planes.  I reckon elves will tend to the plane of Good and the plane of Air, putting them in that semi-angelic place.  Dwarves will tend toward Law and Earth, giving that generic stolid outlook.

Obviously not ALL dwarves or ALL elves but you can assume that any random elf or dwarf will exhibit those tendencies.  That works the same on the other side, humanoids have different tendencies.  Orcs tend to Evil and Fire, goblins to Chaos and Earth.

I think Planar connections should be obvious to anyone with Sight to see it.  These tendencies simply mean that they find talents/spells/abilities that use the energy from those planes easier to learn and use.  I am thinking that templates would have a skill enhancers and naked reduced END advantage for powers associated with those specific planes.

Am reading the Manual of the Planes to give me an idea of where to push things.

5 hours ago, SoffiaW said:

I realize this topic is old, but I've been testing many phone apps and want to recommend some apps. Try checking out "Dice Ex Machina" and "Dice Roller" on the Android platform or "Dice Bag" and "Dice Roller 3D" for iOS.

 

They offer different dice and throwing styles similar to the game of Hero. You can also search for specific apps depending on the operating system of your device and explore other options to find an app that fits your needs and preferences.

Personally I can't see past Hero System mobile by our very own @sentry0.

13 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

I am going to to differ from the popular opinion. I think, as a campaign opener, it would be absolutely _awesome_ and for all the exact same reasons evweyine else dislikes it.

 

PCs are adventurers; they need chaos and uncertainty to have adventure,

 

I _love_ the idea, and have every single intention of stealing it.

You reading the same responses as me Duke? 🤔

Far as I can see, most folk seem to see it as an ideal opportunity for the mischief players love to participate in....

Doc

The reason I am for them is because they encourage players to have their characters do heroic, risky stuff because there is a safety net.  Sometimes players are a bit precious, this helps them loosen up a bit.

Am always happy with folk coming in with questions.  Us old-timers have done all our talking, know our positions and so it can be kinda dull if new folk don't come round stirring things up! 🙂

Actually, my key issue with healing is during combat.  Damage outside of combat can be a bore.

I want the frisson of danger in combats, healing in combat takes away some of that and risks combats being even longer.

In combat, healing should be for avoiding death (rolling up a new character is a bigger bore than a long combat!).

My solution to the healing thing would have been to slap long times on it, hours to achieve unlimited healing.  Remove bureaucracy of tracking wounds, make instant stuff VERY expensive and allow the players to move on to the next interesting thing.

Doc

Question is, would a system that increases dice rolling and counting AND damage volatility, increase or decrease the length of combats?

6 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Now, OK, if that's what you want...fine.  The net result is that it's a LOT harder to figure out what a balanced level of defense is, and this is IMO a VERY Bad Thing.

I think the variation and the increased chances of nothing AND higher damage is EXACTLY what @Sketchpad was aiming at here.

HERO can be a bit staid and predictable, fights coming to long drawn-out affairs because everyone has done their math.

Injecting uncertainty is not that terrible when it comes to combat.  Slowing things down definitely is.

Doc

I think there would be chaos.  All of the various groups that existed under the surface would have the chance to express themselves.  I think there would be all kinds of different things, like after the English Civil War, the field was open to radical hippies, democrats, republicans (in the broad rather than US sesnses), monarchies, those who want the church to take control, those who don't believe the dragon is really dead, or will return to life.

I think the door is open for the PCs to experience radically different set-ups, possibly for a faction looking to unify the kingdom and take control...

@greypaladin_01 has said everything I would.

5 minutes ago, batguy said:

Thanks,I think I should do my own dc/marvel crossover rpg

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.

We came alive to the power of PRE when I designed a character for my friend based on Marvel Comics' Jack of Hearts.

I boosted his PRE to 60 because we wanted him to be VERY impressive.  He became moreso when my friend leaned into this, creating tailored soliloquies to boost and, usually, contributing with flashy shows of power.

He really cleared the arena, the agent types I typically used as a threat cloud and distraction were often totally blown away. 

Made everyone aware of a new combat dynamic.

Doc

3 minutes ago, greypaladin_01 said:

it is more important that the system to fast and simple to use and that any existing character can be converted to it with minimal efforts and a few notes.

Preach!

This thing would have been SO useful for one of my characters.  He was a mystic and his schtick was meaningless life quotes.  I wanted him to say things that might be profound but we're absolutely not.  The only one I can vaguely remember was "All plants have leaves but only the rose has thorns".

This thing would have made my life so EASY!!

13 hours ago, Sketchpad said:

So if you're playing a game of Horror Hero, the players are dependent on what the GM rolls for PRE Attacks. That seems a bit bland, don't you think? I would imagine a more dynamic roll structure that the players make would be exciting and put some of the action in the player's hands.

There is always the option of making the PRE attacks of various horrors fixed.  You might vary the number of dice in the attack but use standard effect so that the heroes roll to attack and roll to defend. 

It takes the dice out the hands of the GM and always in the hands of players.

Personally, I have never liked systems like this, as a player having to expend long term development for short term gain has always felt like I was cheated.

I prefer not allowing xp to be used as xp until they have been used as a boost.  So every xp you earn has the potential to give a short term boost and then to be used to buy powers.

Howeve, if you wanted to do this, you could consider awarding Heroic Action Points instead of XP, they would be one use and you could limit them in other ways to get the value to one HAP per xp.  When a HAP is used it becomes an XP, only to be used for character development.

As a player, I would not then feel cheated, having to burn my future advancement just to hit an opponent.

Doc

4 hours ago, unclevlad said:

+1 per full 5 points over 10 is at least as inobvious, and doesn't allow for low Characteristics...for example, animals.  You'd also be modifying the rounding rule, in effect, as a 13 gives a 12-, a +1 skill level.  You wouldn't be adding it til the CHAR was 15.  

 

There isn't any real different in 9 + CHAR/5 versus CHAR/5 - 2 in terms of ease of understanding, or clunkiness.  I'd strongly suggest just forgetting about "standard roll is 11-" and "experienced roll."  There's 3 fixed-level rolls (familiar and proficient for any skill, and General for background skills), then there's CHAR-based, which covers the standard skills like Electronics and Acrobatics, and everything related to PER.  11- is the conceptual baseline...the skill roll of a normal person trained in a skill, and perhaps more significantly, the roll to hit when OCV = DCV, and there's no other factors at play.  The roll tables for skills and combat then share the same notional basis, which makes learning the game a WHOLE lot simpler.

 

 

The big drive here is to make things visibly less complex and folk like subtraction less than addition (and both better than multiplication or division). 

You raise some issues there but it might be that you could replace characteristic numbers (on the character sheet) with modifiers.  So DEX 10 would be 0, Dex 13 or 15 would be +1 etc.  You could then simply have the base skill as [DEX mod].

If the base mechanic behind this presentation of the system is that you get a success by rolling 10 or better on a modified dice roll you hide all the calculations from the player.  Peeking behind the curtain you can see it all but the DEX modifier is calculated as DEX/5-2 and written on the sheet as a simple number.  Skills can then utilise that modifier without regularly having to revisit the formula.

Personally, I would only have a characteristic on the sheet if it was different from 0, the presumption should be there is no modifier to the skill.

Doc

6 hours ago, greypaladin_01 said:

At this time I am not looking to remove CHA from skills.   What I am doing is working on something that can be viewed as stand alone but also simple to convert existing hero products over to.

I have, over the years come to think of characteristics as something people have come to expect in their games and they were only there because D&D conditioned people to expect them.

I think stuff like STR and DEX and PRE are black box entities that do not belong in a "pure" HERO system.  They are kind of an amalgam of skill and power and they skew things because of their existence.  Just look at the squabble about hand attack if you dont believe me.  We would be better off without actual characteristics and a bit of guidance on how you might represent stuff like - "he is hugely strong" through powers and skills.  And yes I realise you might need to put one or two things like Lifting into the powers to accommodate this.

Doc

17 hours ago, unclevlad said:

-standard (based on a characteristic:  CHAR/5 (using standard Hero round) - 2  (because the baseline is 9, not 11).

Not sure what @greypaladin_01 is thinking but it might be that he has decided to take characteristics out of skills and you get a base 11 or less, or 0 modifier to skill for 3 points.  It means your highly dextrous character buys level with Dex skills rather than buying up Dex.

It does lead to a confusing situation where Dex skills have nothing to do with Dex but it does avoid that ugly equation. 😀

Doc

I am certain that the discussion of the real world hearing loss will inform assault, in just the way he hoped it would when he started the thread.

I admit that Lone Wolf's contributions have been enlightening and I am sure I have heard these things before - it is a common thing among the able bodied to think about disabilities in a kind of binary fashion.  I think that being able to integrate some of that stuff in-game means that those who play the game get a small insight into the world of people who do not percieve or interact with the world in the same way as the majority.

I have all the books, either in hardcopy or in pdf...  🙂

I simply haven't found the time to read them all, just getting a nod that they are worth looking at is welcome.