Doc Democracy

My biggest epiphany in teaching people to play HERO has been treating the provided character sheet simply as a building sheet and designing a sheet that hides most of the numbers not needed often in gameplay, that uses words to describe powers rather than game terms, and has some design features that tie the sheet into the genre being played (even if that was simply a decent font).
 
This is a long-standing rant of mine.  game designers spend forever thinking of the mechanics and getting the rule book right and then seem to ruch out whatever black and white set of boxes with numbers in it that will suffice to hold the details the GM requires.
 
The character sheet is the players window to the system and the game.  The character sheet is the primary way in which the game designers must hook the players with the system and genre they are peddling.  We deserve better!  
 
I would say the first sheet that put me on this loop was Justice Inc - it screamed pulp to me.  That was pre-cheap printing and PC design tools...so much could be done now.

Whenever players use anything, within the rules, that makes it difficult for me or takes a style I dont want in the game I tell them.  If that changes nothing then I tell them that if they continue to use that tactic, then I too will use it.
 
When the tables are turned they hate that used against them,  It wasn't CV abuses for me, it was poison in an early RuneQuest game.  They used it all the time until their opponents began to use it all the time.  After several player characters died because of poisoned blades, they complained that it was not realistic for everyone to use poison all the time.  I replied that it was not realistic for them to use poison all the time.  They were using it for purely tactical advantage and therefore it was fine for me to use it too.
 
I told them that if they foreswore the use of poison except for particular purposes then I would not use it unless their opponent was particularly evil.  The use of poison would donote that inclination.  :-)
 
This was a learning step for me and my players.  No major arguments but mutual agreement not to be too extreme about useful aspects of the game and coming to a mutual understanding.
 
For the Kobold player, I would ensure that he was almost constantly faced with opponents who were also small enough to get the DCV bonus and also utilised the defensive benefits of the combat system so that their combats were a frustrating miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss while everyone else got on with the business of fighting properly.  It would be easier to mop up the kobold if he was isolated and his opponents worked tactically to attack him as a team - make him dive for cover with someone else waiting to target him on the same segment while he was prone...  :-)
 
 
Doc

My biggest epiphany in teaching people to play HERO has been treating the provided character sheet simply as a building sheet and designing a sheet that hides most of the numbers not needed often in gameplay, that uses words to describe powers rather than game terms, and has some design features that tie the sheet into the genre being played (even if that was simply a decent font).
 
This is a long-standing rant of mine.  game designers spend forever thinking of the mechanics and getting the rule book right and then seem to ruch out whatever black and white set of boxes with numbers in it that will suffice to hold the details the GM requires.
 
The character sheet is the players window to the system and the game.  The character sheet is the primary way in which the game designers must hook the players with the system and genre they are peddling.  We deserve better!  
 
I would say the first sheet that put me on this loop was Justice Inc - it screamed pulp to me.  That was pre-cheap printing and PC design tools...so much could be done now.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities
 

Re: Advantagous sfx
 

oO(No. I'm not wrong. But that animated GIF... 
So compelling...
 
The waving fingers... The tongue...
 
Losing will... Unable to fight...
 
Curse you, Doc Democracy! Curse you! Curse...)
 
Yes. I understand. I am wrong. It is all so clear to me. Now.
 

Re: Adjustment powers...
 
Just talking here...the advantage nicely defined, though illogical, drains and power defence is that it is easy in play to administer.
 
I, personally, would like to see adjustment powers and defences to be very much sfx oriented but the problem then becomes one of consistent and fair interpretation in-game.
 
For example, if you buy Power Defence (Chemical Resistance), it is clear enough that if someone sprays you with acid you can resist it. Somewhat less clear is what happens if someone injects you with a poison and less clear yet is what happens if you are infected with a disease (some of which damage the host purely incidentally with their waste-products which are, basically just chemicals. Indeed, arguably most viruses are just clever chemicals...)
 
Whilst many examples will be obvious, many more will be less so which can slow play down. The other problem here is that it can be very difficult to properly work out if a particular sfx in worth an advantage or limitation. I mean, fire and heat are very common sfx but, in my experience, not that common for adjustment powers. Moreover you then have the interaction of the character's own powerset with the sfx: one character who has Power Defence (Fire and Heat) might use if far more than another character with the same powerset if the first character is called IceStar or SolarFlare and the second character is called The Fist of Fury...
 
I am not trying to crush a nascent idea: indeed I would like to encourage it, but I do think that the basis would need to be codified quite carefully yto make it work.

Thanks. I have ALOT more! go to
http://www.bucketoflizards.com/gallery/erikroman/index.asp
 
And check it out.