Lucius Posted March 1, 2010 Report Share Posted March 1, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! Something to keep in mind about character generation - The book presents things in a certain order: Characteristics, Skills, Talents, Powers, Complications. You don't have to design a charcter in that order. You can start with Complications, or Skills, and jump around as you like as you work on it. Lucius Alexander Jumping palindromedary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SavageMessiah Posted March 3, 2010 Report Share Posted March 3, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! I came to Hero from the palladium system and I can tell you that making characters in hero is faster and easier (except maybe for high powered characters with loads of powers) because, unlike palladium, hero has a lot of internal consistency and rationality. Nevertheless I find myself using HD a fair bit because it's so much faster than doing it by hand. On the other hand I'm doing a fair bit of my current material by hand because it makes learning the system a lot easier when you're actually banging on the books. You'll find that things like the CHAR/5 breakpoints will become second nature quickly and you won't even need to do much math anymore. My biggest problem learning Hero was pretty much psychological - I had the overwhelming urge to model even the most inconsequential crap in Hero terms. At some point it just ceases to be fun. So as you start just keep in mind that if something seems like more work than it's worth it's totally reasonable (as a GM anyway) to just handwave some things. For example, I was converting the Thunderclap spell from rifts and initially had modelled the fact that it could be heard from a mile away as Images to hearing group and it's deafening qualities as a Flash to hearing group. In the end I decided this was a waste of time and just made it a Flash to hearing group with the special effect that it was a really loud sound and noted that it could be heard a mile away. Much simpler. I started with the main 5th edition revised book so I'd say the main decider between the basic rulebook and the big blue beasts is how much money you feel like spending to start. Wow, sorry for the wall of text. tldr; Palladium boo, Hero yay, simplify builds with SFX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! I came to Hero from the palladium system and I can tell you that making characters in hero is faster and easier Well, yeah, but - wouldn't almost anything be better than palladium? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary is disappointed in me for taking a cheap shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! Well, yeah, but - wouldn't almost anything be better than palladium? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary is disappointed in me for taking a cheap shot. Well, there's always stuff like Spawn of Fashan and Superhero: 2044. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobran Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! Well' date=' there's always stuff like Spawn of Fashan and Superhero: 2044.[/quote'] I would slap you for the mere mention of Spawn of Fashan if you weren't so recently involved in some excellent Hero work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! I would slap you for the mere mention of Spawn of Fashan if you weren't so recently involved in some excellent Hero work. I see. Good thing I didn't mention FATAL then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobran Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! I see. Good thing I didn't mention FATAL then. *dies* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! *dies* *loots the body* I see my work here is done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobran Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! When did we start playing D&D? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! Another suggestion is to play a game of Hero online. There's a thriving community of Play By Post games at herocentral.net, as well as the occasional pic up game that pops up in the Hero Chat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! I didn't just derail the thread....I started a train wreck With FATAL results! Lucius Alexander The palindromedary shakes both heads and says that's what you get for taking the cheap shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torchwolf Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! Surprisingly, to me anyway, no one has mentioned Narf's wonderful 2 page intro to HERO. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/77944-Hero-In-Two-Pages-Complete?p=1967242 As others have said all of Hero's complexity is up front. Once the GM has the world the way they want it and the characters are built the play is actually quite simple and can be very fast. Narf's document works well as a handout for players and covers everything you need to know to play. Duh! I second this (should have suggested it, really, since I was there discussing it when it was put together). Do check that document out. Very nice, and very good layout by teh Bunneh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickael Posted March 4, 2010 Report Share Posted March 4, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! I've just dowloaded it, and, wahou, it's great ! I'm gonna give it to all my players, I don't think they will take the time to read more than 2 pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kem Posted March 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! That two-pager is handy, thanks. Or will be. Now to decide between buying the two big books (on special, locally) or going for the quite reasonable option of 2 books + 2 PDFs for $80. Hmmmm. Whichever, I am going to give the game a try. Not as intimidating as I had been led to believe, so, good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted March 5, 2010 Report Share Posted March 5, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! I've found that whenever you come across a stumbling block, asking for help either here in the forum or in the chat helps out a lot. I even have to go for advice once in a while and I have been playing since 4th Edition was just coming into its own. That sort of community support tends to make even the most intimidating thing manageable. And HERO is actually really easy to grok. The books just turn out to be reference material once you get the basics down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarragon Posted March 5, 2010 Report Share Posted March 5, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! I personally went with the books + PDFs option. The books are really nice and I can't imaging running a gaming system without physical books to thwap the rules lawyers with. HERO absolutely has the best indexes of any gaming books, you could get along with just the physical books. Even so being able to search the PDFs is a nice step up. That and being able to carry the hero books where ever I am by keeping them on my keychain flash drive and not in a backpack pushed me over into getting both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rapier Posted March 5, 2010 Report Share Posted March 5, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! I've always been a physical copy kind of guy. After a while I know just where to flip to get to what I need. However, lately I find myself using the PDF copies more and more. I'm not necessarily sure where my usage is heading, but I did find it curious that I'm suddenly using these PDFs more than I thought I would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorpheousXO Posted March 7, 2010 Report Share Posted March 7, 2010 Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! With 6E I've been actually buying the combo deals of book and PDF. I love physical books, but the PDFs are also so darn useful with being able to search them. Sadly, because that's the only way I'm buying 6E, that means I can't get HSMA yet T_T stupid bills.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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