Doc Democracy

OK. I realise that MarkDoc has done a good conversion of RQ2 to the Hero System [http://www.geocities.com/markdoc.geo/Gaming_stuff/Runequest/heroquest.htm] and that SCUBA Hero has been doing sterling work in converting RQ2 magic to the Hero System [http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7054&highlight=glorantha+hero] What I want to do is set up Hero to play in Glorantha and make Hero a better system for Glorantha than RQ was. In both prior circumstances the conversions are system to system, I want to get the flavour of the setting and use the toolbox to provide a system to run in that world. To that end I'd like people to chip in with what they think made Glorantha Glorantha rather than what made RQ, runequest. To start I have some broad themes: Magic (Sorcery/Theism/Animism/Mysticism) permeates the world, everyone has access to it and most tasks make use of specialised magic. Some magics are incompatible with others. The world revolves about dualities represented by runes. Bronze age. Runic metals interfere with magic use. Iron is foreign to the world and provides a huge advantage in physical combat. Adepts in magic systems can progress beyond normal physical abilities (e.g. Rune Lords) Powerful beings can cross to a metaplane where reality can be altered. When I get enough of this together I will try and put together some core rules for using the toolkit to play in Glorantha. I'll try and keep discussion on how the magic works til after I have the world basics down pat. Anyone with anything else to add? Doc

Re: Starting A New DC Campaign One good way to make players stick together is to have an outside threat that they cannot defeat on their own. An outside threat that is a clear and present danger to their lives. Maybe a villain has decided that these new street vigilantes are a bad thing, good job they work alone - he can beat any one of them, possibly any two. If he dedicates himself to the task the streets will be his before his 40th birthday. What a nice present that would be. Perhaps a Lex Luthor style viallain would be better, luring these do-gooders into traps and killing them off. I would even consider having them all draw up two character ideas at the start to get it straight in their head that this is _dark_ champions and their character could die - you don't want to waste time generating a new character in the middle of a game. This would allow me to kill any character that doesn't play ball without damaging the game for everyone else. Doc

Re: In a Bind

Re: Meta SFX

Re: Another Suggestion for Dropping Figured Characteristics Obviously you will know what you want better than me. I thought that removing one of the major subsystems of Hero would remove complexity and aid in levelling the learning curve. This may also provide an opportunity to cut the Gordian Knot of STR cost by removing STR as a concept. You are, like the rest of us, conservative at hearth though. Too much change frightens us - would we still be playing the same system? I think so, others would not. Anyway - I'm not advocating this as a change just indicating that if I was going to go to all the trouble of adjusting the characteristics to remove figured then I think I'd go the extra mile to think about what the system would look like without all of those black box powers that we call characteristics. Doc

Re: Another Suggestion for Dropping Figured Characteristics I'd have thought you'd be interested in a change like this as it would possibly lead to a lesser required upfront investment in learning the system - don't worry about characteristics - just learn the power and skills systems. I was thinking of you when I wrote it! Doc

Re: Another Suggestion for Dropping Figured Characteristics Most of the comments here simply indicate how interlinked much of the system (inevitably?) is. You can't change the characteristics without considering those powers (like drains etc) that were designed to predate upon them. This is an ecology and you have to consider all the aspects of changes imposed on that ecology.

Re: Another Suggestion for Dropping Figured Characteristics The only thing I have against dropping figured characteristics is that it seems like fiddling around the edges. If I was going to rework characteristics then I think I'd get rid of characteristics completely. That would streamline the system as it would remove another way of getting package deals. Characteristics are a throwback to first generation rpgs. I would give each character the basic abilities that the current starting characteristics give - 2d6 normal damage, CV3, 10 BODY etc etc just like the 6" running that everyone gets. Anything more that you wanted, you would buy as a power. I realise that this is a radical departure from current 5ER but if you want to change things then go the whole way and do it 'properly' Doc

Re: Lets cut the crap...

Re: Meta SFX

Re: An Open Call to Action I can't believe Hero players are arguing about whether they would want to be involved in this. Surely Hero is the ultimate tinkerers system and played by the ultimate tinkerers. And surely this is the ultimate tinker! Course I'm interested. Course I want to discuss it - that's why I come to these boards - I see this as a Mega-thread rather than some subversive group out to change Hero from under the feet of loyal fans. DOJ and any other rpg producer has a problem in that they need to keep selling books but rpgs allow you to continue playing a game with just imagination and the first core books they ever printed. I can see (with electronic publishing becoming more and more viable) companies having many versions of their rules that would be 'in print' at the same time allowing people to play the version they want to play. If you love 3rd edition they'd have third edition available for your group to purchase. If it was 5th then you could go for that. Just as obviously supplements would be designed with a particular edition in mind and there might possibly be conversion notes available. I would hope that DOJ read this with the same interest they read everything else. If the group had good ideas that they shared opely and DOJ used them in a future edition - then that'd be cool. If they never did then that'd be fine too - I'd have had a blast discussing one of my favourite systems with a number of other people equally as interested. I might even learn some stuff. As I've pointed out in the past I think that an ultimate book with a range of 'house rule' options would be a must buy for me. Things that changed basic concepts and explained the effects that these changes would have on game play would be the core content of such a book. This project would be a good source of material for such a book. How could I not be interested - how could any Hero fan not be interested in discussing the basics of the system and looking at the effects of changing those basics? Doc Doc

Re: Meta SFX In the earlier discussion we were thinking that if you had a list of special effects that you'd want to keep it down to 20 maximum. When you create your adjustment power you would choose one SFX that would have full value against the attack and possibly one or two that had half value. So the poison adjustment that you were talking about could be biological but chemical and mutant might give half protection... Doc

Re: Meta SFX I'm up for this kind of thing. It was discussed earlier this year in this thread. Doc

Re: Set Distribution by Rolling 3d6 (or 1d6, 2d6, 4d6, etc.) for All Damage/Effect Rolls I've always had the problem that if I was rolling 12D6 that my damage rarely varied less than 35 or greater than 49. I wanted access to the 12 to 72 range. I've toyed with a few systems of tying in damage to dice rolls so that if you hit well below the required number you do more damage and if you hit close to the required roll you do less. That has an advantage in character design as a fast agile martial artist doesn't need scads of dice to damage a slow moving brick - he'll be doing maximum damage each time while the brick, if he lands a punch will likely only be doing glancing damage. The archetypes are truer. On the negative side you stop rolling scads of dice which is always nice as you charge up your fist with the 24D6 pushed haymaker that you've manouevered your opponent into having to take on the chin.... Doc

Re: How would you simulate this? Am I wrong or are we getting caught up in trying to describe the special effects rather than the mechanics? Could a homing round not simply provide a lot of OCV and take a couple of segments to reach its target? My reasoning is that if I make a to hit roll but the target does not take damage immediately and indeed may have even a slight chance of getting something in the way, then that is a limitation on my attack (I should get to do the damage immediately). If the limitation is something like (missile travels 10" per segment, follows target unerringly once 'locked on' -1/4) then someone could get themselves behind a closed door that would take the hit (if they could travel faster than the 10"/segment to the door), otherwise they'd get hit a few segments after I fired the round. My 'to hit' roll would simulate the lock on. If I failed the attack roll then I wouldn't have managed to lock on to the target at all and the missile would miss. My suggestion is to buy an EB with the limitation as above - the round you are talking about isn't better than a regular shot it is worse. Doc

Re: Possession - Desolid + Mental Powers The construct I've been toying with for possession is a combo of transform and duplication... Essentially what I'm thinking is that the possessing character buys duplication. When he wants to possess someone then he uses the transform to transform the target into the merged character of which he is part. The merged character would have the INT and EGO of the possesser and everything else from the possessed character. My thoughts are that there a limit on how big (points wise) a character could possibly be possessed through the point limits in the duplication construction. It seems a bit twisted at first but it does use an existing construction to combine two characters into one. I haven't done any number crunching or anything but I think it would be a reasonable way to make Jericho for example... Doc

Re: How to...take all powers away. I think that transform was created for this kind of thing. The original argument in Champions III (if I remember correctly) was that if you could do enough damage to kill someone then you should be able to do other things to them instead - such as strip them of all their powers...

Re: Weapons as Perks When I first saw the title I thought that you were going to require characters to buy perks to be allowed to use particular weapons - such as only a knight could carry a sword and only a yeoman would be allowed access to a long bow. Obviously not. I was interested in the idea of people looting dead bodies for weapons though. If you wanted to charge for points and avoid the looting problem then maybe you want to make the campaign work against looting. My friend and I came up with an anti-cliche campaign where we tried to put in ground rules that would reverse any of the standard fantasy genre stuff. We wanted to stop the looting of bodies etc and so came up with the idea that the possessions of someone who died, unless they were replaced with something of equal value would carry a geas. The person who stole an item would be bound to complete an unfinished task of the dead person. This geas would be more powerful with the value or power of the item. Obviously this would not stop looting but it would make people think more than twice and would potentially lead to interesting campaign twists as well. Doc

Re: The DEATH of the HERO System!!!

Re: The DEATH of the HERO System!!! It depends where in the country you are. In the north then dinner will be lunch and in the south it is more likely to mean supper... It can casue confusion.

Re: The DEATH of the HERO System!!! I'd just like to add that I was impressed at the supply of damaged books to the UK, when shipping is taken into account DOJ were almost paying me to take books. When you're next over here Steve (or any of the other DOJ staffers) then dinner is on me. Doc

Re: Lethality in Star Wars It does seem to be a genre issue. The mechanics thing to do is, like people have suggested, make blaster damage against NPCs killing and against PCs normal. That simple change does increase the longevity of PCs compared to everyone else - it also avoids many other changes. If you also standardise damage from the stormtroopers weapons (3 STUN/1 BODY per dice) it also means that only you have to be aware of the differences on a minute by minute basis (I'd tell the players of their special advantage so that they feel more free to swashbuckle while others are falling around them). The CV differences are also important. I wouldn't make stormtrooper armour valueless - they did simply seem to walk through the rebels when it came to close combat. I would discourage the wearing of stormtrooper armour by players (except for camouflage purposes) by telling them that when they are wearing it they will take killing damage like everyone else... These help enforce genre conventions and would all be a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Doc

Re: Building Political Intrege I think that the advice has been good so far. Keep it simple and keep the PCs involved. I would have some broad relationships on a grid (for a few major factions e.g. four noble houses, Mayor, thieves guild, adventurers guild etc). These would inform specific relationships for particular NPCs (who would only have to be detailed if the PCs were to meet them and find this out). PCs might be expected to know the broad outlines but only you would have to know the detailed ones. In fact, intrigue becomes real when the relationship depends on who is telling you about it (it takes a lot of work to find out who is really on who's side). Doc

Re: The Force--Need Help! I would have some distinction between light and dark side stuff. We all know that the dark side is quicker, easier, more seductive... I would allow players to buy powers whenever they want them with the proviso that they know that powers bought when xp aren't immediately available are likely to come through the dark side - I'd give physical and psychological disads to the cost of the power used. I'd also allow players to push powers beyond their normal strengths - again at the cost of accumulating Phys and Psych disads (always something bad). That would give the feel that the Dark Side is easier to use but leads to the inevitable decline of the person. I might even allow the amount that a power can be pushed to increase based on the points of dark side related disads already present on the character sheet.... Doc

Re: Demo Game Well, there's always the old Wolfman standby - weres are rife through mythology and there were always stories of nobles and others that could change into animals....