captaincf Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 I am sure someone has thought of this before, so I was hoping to get some feedback on it. The plan is to combine the various Hero Games genres into one campaign where players each play a character from a different Genre who are brought together. Any idea if this would work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captaincf Posted August 31, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: Combining Genres Maybe it would help if I gave a few more details about my idea. The characters suddenly appear in a metallic walled room, and learn they have been selected to undergo a test. If they succeed, that is, survive, they will learn why they have been brought to this location. The adventure would then proceed to pit them against a variety of foes, from a variety of genres, as they make there way through this complex. It will kind of have a dungeon crawl type feel to it. So? Is this pretty good or fairly stupid? Is this even possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: Combining Genres This is a fun idea but it requires a decent amount of work from the GM early on to make sure that each genre has its schtick that makes it fun over the other genres. This can mean imposing limits on what those playing each genre can accomplish - like what TORG did for the characters. In TORG a character that came from a fantasy background had more difficulty using technological stuff beyond the level of its own genre background. Have you given thought to what genre's you will use and why the players might want to play each each genre over the others?? Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captaincf Posted August 31, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: Combining Genres Yeah. Two members of the group and I had a quick discussion last night. One always played magicians in our shadowrun games, so I thought he would be good for the fantasy genre. Another always liked to play combat monsters, so I thought he would be good for a post apocalyptic character. Another got hooked on the Heroes tv series, so I thought Champions for him. My wife likes a more realistic feel, so Pulp for her. Only one member of the group would be hard to peg. I had given thought to the tech limitations. These guys role play pretty well, so I am going to allow some wiggle room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: Combining Genres In theory, so long as everybody's built on the same point level and the same rules (either everybody or nobody pays points for equipment), it should work out fine on the balance issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captaincf Posted August 31, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: Combining Genres I was thinking a Heroic campaign as everyone is new to Hero. Even I do not have all THAT much experience. So 75 points per character with up to 75 for disads. I am hoping that will be enough to make a decent Champions character. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: Combining Genres I was thinking a Heroic campaign as everyone is new to Hero. Even I do not have all THAT much experience. So 75 points per character with up to 75 for disads. I am hoping that will be enough to make a decent Champions character. depends on what you mean by Champions. If you mean superhero then 150 points is not much at all. One way round this is to make heroic characters on 150 points. See what the equipment you are giving them is worth and give the superhero all those points to build the superhero - on the understanding that the genre schtick is that any equipment used by the superhero almost immediately breaks or is destroyed.... Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captaincf Posted August 31, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: Combining Genres depends on what you mean by Champions. If you mean superhero then 150 points is not much at all. One way round this is to make heroic characters on 150 points. See what the equipment you are giving them is worth and give the superhero all those points to build the superhero - on the understanding that the genre schtick is that any equipment used by the superhero almost immediately breaks or is destroyed.... Doc SO the 150 would not include equipment for Pulp, Fantasy, Star and PA, as per Heroic rules (if I remember right), but would be additional points. And the Champions character would have an equal number of points to use for powers, but would be jinxed as far as using equipment. Maybe a disad for that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: Combining Genres Remember that the amazing thing about a dancing bear isn't how well he dances but rather that he dances at all. IOW, if a super can do something none of the non-supers can do (such as fly, see through walls, or use telepathy) then he doesn't need to be overwhelmingly powerful. He's important because he can do things others cannot. The TV show Heroes is a pretty good illustration of this. Most of the characters have a very limited range of superpowers; often only a single power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: Combining Genres Remember that the amazing thing about a dancing bear isn't how well he dances but rather that he dances at all. IOW, if a super can do something none of the non-supers can do (such as fly, see through walls, or use telepathy) then he doesn't need to be overwhelmingly powerful. He's important because he can do things others can. The TV show Heroes is a pretty good illustration of this. Most of the characters have a very limited range of superpowers; often only a single power. Good point. You do not have to have a superhero built on the 'standard' 350 points. Simple superpowers that are not available to others are enough. In an extra-ordinary gentlemen style game I ran each player had a single extra-ordinary ability. The one who had 10 rPD/ED was deemed invlunerable by himself and the other players because he played that way, You _could_ do that in a 150 point game. It would come down to how you would make the superhero stand out for the players as something worth playing... Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted September 1, 2008 Report Share Posted September 1, 2008 Re: Combining Genres I've been in genremix campaigns. They work surprisingly well as long as everyone is on the same page regarding power level. I've even done it with mixed Character Point totals. The superhero got more points, but the sci-fi guy didn't have to pay for his equipment. While the sci-fi guys equipment turn-over rate was pretty good (sometimes he had a cool plasma rifle, sometimes he just had a really nice set of other important equipment, sometimes just the fact that he could fly a spaceship was the edge he had) it never lagged too far behind in overall usefulness compared to the Superguy. The biggest stumbling block is really how to make each character shine and keep them all equally balanced in Game Capability, even if the point spread was pretty wide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted September 6, 2008 Report Share Posted September 6, 2008 Re: Combining Genres Yeah, a super can overshadow in combat real fast...so a less useful power set might let them work together better....or let awesome offence be the super's schtick..... maybe build the super on 100+100, and minimal equipment, some sort of "jinx field" (a side effect of being "super") Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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