Doc Democracy

Re: Herogames: The Sportscar Product

Re: Herogames: The Sportscar Product

Re: Herogames: The Sportscar Product Personally I think that DOJ would love to see systems out there that would tease, tantalise and hopefully begin to draw people to the main system. All of these standalones would have to have design notes somewhere that would allow someone with HERO knowledge to peek behind the curtain. It would also allow them to tweak the setting if they so desired. I think the problem is money. DOJ would rather focus on their core business than develop potential advertising for that core business. Having listened to Steve in London I think that he'd be open to someone coming to him with a business proposal. I think that if a group of us were to get together enough money to print something like this then I think DOJ might facilitate the business side of it. It would all depend on the quality of the material, the financing of the book and the commitment necessary from DOJ itself. In the end a company has to look at the business implications. I also think that if one or two of these projects were financially successful then DOJ might think about doing them itself thereafter. If we are really serious then this is the opportunity to put our money where our mouth is - just like Steve and DOJ did.... Doc

Re: My two cents

Re: HERO system observations and beefs

Re: Pulp Hero Given how well the site looks haven't you ever thought of designing the character sheets to make them more atmospheric? Doc

Re: HERO system observations and beefs As has been made clear - I'm another person who thinks that there is a niche to be filled with books that present flavour first with HERO at its core though not necessarily in an obvious manner. One of my hopes was that DoJ could do something along the lines of 20-30 glossy pages that could be picked up for $10 or less. They'd be small limited games obviously but would promise more - if they picked up the full rulebook... My desire is to see lots of small purchases that I'd be tempted to buy. Just because you can make your own game from the toolkit doesn't mean you have the time, dedication or inspiration to do so. Sometimes you want to just open the wrapper and dive in.... ...specially if it costs $10. Doc

Re: 3 Questions - Force Wall and Area of Effect OK. What I see here is that you want to be able to generate a disk of force that on one side would repel attacks and on the other would allow you to step into it and teleport. To me that is an entangle (only to create barriers) and a teleport (only fixed locations - location of barrier). Thus, if you generate a disk close to you to hide behind, you could then create another disk at the range limit of your entangle and then step from one to the other. I think you could define the size of the entangle barrier when you create it (bit harder to work out without the book in front of me). Doc

Re: Which are the optional bits? DrFaust Steve Long has pitched 5th edition as a toolkit. As such I think that everything is optional. Pick and choose what you want to use and play the game you want to play. The main caveat must be that HERO has probably been designed for balance more than any other system out there. You have to be careful that the changes you make don't unduly unbalance the system. As Nexus pointed out, dropping turn mode has the potentially unexpected impact of changing the value of running relative to flight. Changing things gets easier as you get more experience. HERO is a tinkerers dream - have a blast. Doc

Re: Presenting a genre using the toolkit have attached a few sheets - two champions and two justice inc Doc

Re: Stretching A Core System: Part Deux nicely put. I'm afraid you are looking for people to be careful of the words they use in debate and discussion - a controlled vocabulary. It'd be lovely but I don't think it'll happen. I sometimes think that people don't want to speak clearly! Doc

Re: Stupid question To me it is 20 points - the OIF applies to it all - you lose the levels when you lost the focus as well. If you wanted to keep the levels available in the event that some other method of deflection came up that you could use them with then the OIF wouldn't count. [warning]That's all from my head - I haven't looked at a book[/warning]

Re: Interesting power for help and discussion I suppose for me it would depend on the actual play effects. It seems obvious that it is either damage shield or trigger. If it is trigger then it has to be reset every time it goes off. If it is damage shield then it'll have to be made a continuing power but would have the offset limitation that only telepathic contact would incur the damage. Personally I think that you are looking at a PRE Attack Damage Shield. It would be xD6 PRE Attack, damage shield, only when contacted telepathically. Doc

Re: Presenting a genre using the toolkit Is that like I don't believe in ghosts? I'm not sure what you mean. You don't believe that the GM should make packages that PCs can purchase? Obviously this is all about the style of play. I know I can put together a package of stuff that makes HERO as playable as D20 in the minds of my group - but allows me to monitor balance issues whenever I want to add something new. When I create a spell list for my Fantasy Hero game surely I'm just putting together a whole like 'Savvy' that provides a set plus to INT or somesuch?? I was using this thread to ask whether people have thought about altering the presentation of the game to their players through either the character sheet or limiting the available rules. I guess your answer is no! Doc

Re: Presenting a genre using the toolkit I'm at work just now. I'll have a scout through the files I have on my PC at home and see whether I've kept everything. If I have then I'll mail you what I have. Will PM when I know... Doc

Re: Presenting a genre using the toolkit

Re: Presenting a genre using the toolkit That's right. If I felt the need to quote stats then I'd try to use more genre style names for them (stolen from Deadlands and so a good idea!). I'm loathe to have something on the character sheet that I don't intend to come into play though. If I don't want people increasing INT on a point for point basis but instead through buying 'Savvy', which would be +5 INT then I shouldn't put INT on the character sheet, just somewhere to note that the person bought Savvy and can indicate the consequences of that.

I thought I'd spin this off the 'stretching the core system' thread.

Re: How far to stretch a core system?

Re: HERO system observations and beefs I don't think you are in the minority, at least not on these boards. HERO is a game for tinkerers whether they admit it or not. All HERO people love to look at the detail of the system. What people are saying is that sometimes it would be nice to be able to pick up something that allowed you to use the system without tailoring the bits and pieces to get the genre feel you want for that game. I was thinking that one of the things HERO might want to consider is a low-cost supplement kind of thing - like a skin for the PC - essentially a list of house rules for a genre - cost $5 or less. You could have hundreds of these available for download - even better if they could be GM shield style theat could be ordered on coloured cardboard for perhaps a bit more money. I think that people are more likely to drop $5 a week on four small purchases than $20 a month on one bigger one. I think that game companies, like comic companies, are abandoning low value products and that the end effect is that they rarify the market. You need to be bringing kids in at the low end and for that you need some accessible products. Sidekick is fantastic, at the price it provides an easy purchase and a playable game that can lead to the bigger books. Once you have the bigger books, I'd welcome something lower cost that I can impulse buy more often. Doc

Re: Stargate Hero The problem with the way you do it in the file is that you risk the occasional blip where the number of workers drops...I think about the 20th iteration whereas using total BODY the numbers can only increase with time (unless the heroes are doing their job and taking them out....) Doc

Re: Stargate Hero I thought you'd have used total body transformed to calculate the number of Workers and Warriors available...

Re: HERO system observations and beefs Apparently I'm not very good at spreading rep - just tried you (and Zornwil on another thread) and will have to give others before I get back to you....

Re: HERO system observations and beefs It's your opinion on the books. Personally I don't agree. I thought the 5th edition was a bit corporate but given that the system was being resuscitated from a mortal gap in revenue generation I think that I was delighted to see a book at all even if it didn't feature art by George Perez. I've spoken to Steve Long and he said that he learned a lot through writing the Fifth Edition and learned more writing Sidekick. Those statements could be taken as an acknowledgement that the rulebook was less than perfect but it also shows that he thinks the books are getting better as they go on. I'm not sure where you get fluffy from, the books are as hardcore as you can get - there's crunchy bits EVERYWHERE. I reckon you mean unfocussed but that is IMO the strength and weakness of HERO. It's hard to be focussed in a toolkit. 4th Edition was still Champions where the rules might be used elsewhere and so the focus of the book was superheroes. In fifth edition there is no pre-supposition that the book will be used to play superheroes (and maybe some other stuff) that makes the rules hard to focus. They are supposed to be open ended. Personally I thought Star Hero was the best generic space RPG rulebook I've ever read - it provides so much aid to someone wanting to set up a sci-fi game. Like any other long time HERO player the other stuff is nothing that I couldn't do myself given time. Alien Wars and Terran Empire should be sefl referential - they're campaign books - they need to connect. Why were we afraid of the Xenovores - well STR 13 compares to an average human STR 8 - or in HERO terms the aliens are twice as strong as humans. That's impressive - it's just that the system doesn't make that immediately explicit. Fantasy Hero is a huge tome that tries to provide guidance on how you can use the toolkit to construct a huge variety of Fantasy campaigns - it wasn't the place for concrete examples - it was very much an ideas book that provided broad paths that could be developed. I guess that means I pretty much disagree with you - which doesn't mean either of us is right or wrong. I'm pleased that the books are there. I'll buy more when they are published. IMO you have approached a few of these books looking for things they were never designed to provide - no wonder you were disappointed. I'm pleased you posted though - even if you don't buy any more books this is the place to be for anyone that wants to game using the HERO system. Doc

Re: How far to stretch a core system? People might be beginning to recognise that this is one of my hobby horses. I think that HERO, as a toolkit, should be allowed to provide all kinds of frameworks to enhance gameplay. If a particular feature of the game doesn't work for a particular type of game then eliminate it. To me its still HERO. I would be interested in buying such stuff with the provision that there was a section for HERO geeks that detailed what they'd done to the core system to achieve their particular use of the toolkit. I wouldn't care if that was in the book (expensive) or in a pdf that I could download. I think that anything that uses the HERO system as the starting point of constructing their particular ruleset could easily come within the extended HERO family. HERO has provided core rules for effects, characteristics, skills and several contest mechanisms (combat, skills, mental combat to name three - PRE attack to name another). I think there could be a lot more evocative games produced using even fragments of the core system that would be understandable and scalable by owners of the toolkit but would allow more limited gameplay just through the gamebook. See. My hobby horse... Doc