Doc Democracy

If the NPCs do not roll it means that critical rolls become more friendly to players - they would only be available to heroes. :-) I am open to new dice mechanics. Having played so long I get tired of the fact that the more dice you have, the less likely you are to achieve more extreme results and that the to hit roll is entirely remote from the damage roll. I have looked at mechanics in the past but never come up with anything that I liked.

I think that Ninja-Bear is right. The flexibility of the system should mean that it is possible to play a game where the players experience is not so flexible or time-consuming. I think that Christopher is right. To get that game the GM inputs a lot of time and effort. :-) As far as I can see it the thread is about the inconvenience to players of a high lethality game. If the GM wants to run one, then HERO will allow him to create a game where that lethality does not inconvenience the players any more than any number of other games (that are inherently less flexible than HERO). Doc

My inclination, if I was to get rid of cash, would be to use a modified version of contacts. The more you use it, the less useful it becomes...

Personally I prefer the idea of taking an experience hit but get accelerated XP until the new character is back at the level but it really does depend on how often you expect folk to bite the bullet. If it is an every other session thing, then I think I would assign XP by providing equipment that 'holds' the XP of the group and they can divvy that up as they need. The characters themselves do not gain experience, the group acquires stuff that helps them survive and that stuff (possibly in an equipment pool) is always available. As such, new characters come in with no real difference to any of the existing characters but may have to convince the other characters that they can be trusted with the kit. more roleplay, less mechanics.

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.

I've participated in one or two if these types of thread and I think that every time I have done so, I have fallen into the trap of pursuing mechanic rather than effect. What is it that is the desired game effect? The effect is that someone hesitates before trying to move past a defender because that action might cause unwelcome damage. My approach has often been to look to see what mechanics might be put in place to allow a defender to intercept the attacker with all of the complexity that entailed. Thinking about it, it is a decent special power for bricks or martial artists. It would be possible to build a triggered power that would do damage to anyone getting within a set distance of the defender without unduly requiring any changes to the system. The special effect would be the defender taking advantage of the passing character's lack of combat focus to cause him/her damage. Doc

I remember first edition FH come out. Even remember the competition to think of a cool name for it. :-) Not sure it had the style or panache of 2E Runequest though....we need someone with a decent, long time campaign that we could steal....

always good to cross the i's and dot the t's

Too much to read already, so instead I skimmed. It seems to me, most people are comparing to D&D. I think that is the wrong comparator, simply because it was very rare for any D&D edition to have all you needed to play. My favourite fantasy purchase ever has to be second edition Runequest. The boxed version with the softcover blue book. It came with what became a classic adventure (Apple Lane) and a couple of pamphlet supplements providing cool treasures and off the shelf encounters. I think the adventure was good because it highlighted the advantages of the system over the opposition. The main book ran through character creation but embedded that within a strong setting narrative. It also contained lots of monsters and treasures a map and the details of how magic works in that world. I think the favourite Hero purchase ever has been Justice INC, the boxed version around the time of champions II and III. Again, nothing spectacular presentation-wise but dripping in character. In fact the provision of a character sheet that looked like something from the pulps was worth it. I think most systems fail around the area of character sheets. I have said it before but I see the character sheet as the player user interface for a system. it is the thing that all players see. Only the GM is likely to read the background and other stuff, it is the character sheet that has to do the heavy lifting of selling the system to the players. As far as I can see, most gaming companies put all their creative and design effort into the book and the character sheet is left as a last minute, if was can be bothered, thing. I think I would have very setting specific character sheets that only had necessary numbers and other sheets specifically for building characters. Beyond that a few setting specific easy to use stuff in the bundle with the book and a number of others to purchase online for $2 or so. If I was a new GM I would want five or six kinds of starting character to dish out, at least two kinds of magic, ten or twenty spells for each, a couple of dozen stock monsters, an off the shelf adventure that ran me through the vagaries of the system - to get me to use the rules at least once. I might then invest small amounts downloading additional magic systems, additional characters, additional treasures, etc etc etc. Anything that I can use of the shelf makes things easier. Anything that makes my game cool for the players is even better.... Doc

Thanks for the feedback lads. Cumulative was indeed the inspiration for this. It is slightly different and I think that the player gets a feeling of seeing the damage grow towards a maximum. It is a way of keeping overall dice down and maximising the damage from those dice. Doc

Hmmm. I have a player with a reptilian character who wants something different for his constriction power. I am thinking of riffing a bit on the cumulative advantage. My thought is that he has 40 STR. That is 8D6. If he has grabbed someone then he enables a cumulative effect on his STR. Each phase where he maintains his hold he can constrict rather than do damage - first phase he rolls 8D6 as normal. That damage will be done at some point. Each subsequent phase that he manages to maintain the hold he can re-roll any of the dice of that first 8D6 to extend STUN damage (but not BODY). After any re-roll he can do the damage currently indicated. If he fails to maintain the hold then the original damage is inflicted as the hold is lost. My thoughts are that the character holds on a couple of extra phases to maximise damage up to a maximum of 48 STUN. It would be a cool way to keep the characters total damage capacity lower yet allow him a way to damage those characters whose defences would otherwise be too high to effectively damage. he pays for that by having to spend a long time maintaining a hold and building it up. Am not sure what to charge for the constriction advantage. Thoughts?? Doc

I think the biggest problem for the system is how a single hero can prevent swarms of minor threats getting past and killing innocents. Or to be ore accurate, how the system facilitates the player in doing such heroic work. Personally, I think that there has to be some kind of PRE attack going on, making minions scared of going near the hero unless there are lots of em and I would be inclined to allow heroes to take damage in lieu of letting minions past - as a last resort thing. The key ask for the GM has to be to facilitate heroic action rather than bring the action down to mundane details that make it likely the hero will fail. That is a trap I have often fallen into... :-(

When there is a great need to reduce the impact of defences but they all have different power bases that the best way is to buy more attack powers limited with 'only to overcome defences'.

I agree. HERO is not set up to simulate the details of such a game. I do think a point by point game should be possible though. Psyber has made a decent start. If you are a volleyball fan/player the idea would be to abstract the things you feel important. I would imagine you could come up with all kinds of manoeuvres that a team might use in the way of seeking to gain advantage. Then when the ball is volleyed over the net the ability of the defending team first to keep it in play, then to utilise it to win advantage and finally to hit it back. You might find things to spice it up. Keep track of who is on the ball, make the hit easier to volley based on DEX, easier to manoeuvre based on INT, more difficult to defend based on STR. That way it matters who the players are on each side. Good luck. If you design something that works, post it. :-)

I was wondering what you thought that the submarine gained by firing a salvo rather than simply firing one torpedo? You have jumped straight into the mechanics without considering game effect. If you want there to be the chance of multiple hits then you have the answers in front of you. If you want the chance to hit to be increased then you are buying combat skill levels with the special effect of firing lots of torpedoes. If you want the chance that a single target gets more damaged then you may want to buy a compound power that increases damage if you make a better to hit roll or something. What is it that you want the salvo mechanic to accomplish?? Doc

Re: The "parasite" or "symbiote" alien race I think that the big thing here is getting a really good handle on what the relationship here is between the entities. Is it host and parasite, where the host is damaged and the parasite gains, is it commensalism where the host is not harmed and the other organism benefits or is it a mutualistic relationship whereboth organisms benefit? You need to know the basic relationship and you need to get an idea of how often the organism moves between hosts. Once you have that you have the basics of knowing how it is going to need to work. You want to know what the visiting organism can and cannot do when it is outside a host. Is it helpless, does it have abilities to move, attack, defend itself etc. You need to compare the organism outside the host with the merged entity. That way you know what the merging provides in the way of abilities to the visiting organism. You also need to consider what the host will lose or bring to the merged entity. Only after that can you really decide which of the routes above you want to take. Everyone sees a difference scenario. I was immediately thinking of the vehicle or focus options mentioned by Sean. I am sure there are situations where each example would provide a different but better solution to the quandry. This is HERO. You KNOW the first thing you have to do is sit down and clearly define what it is you want to achieve... Doc

Re: Question regarding Hacking Automatons

Re: Question regarding Hacking Automatons You know, I am just throwing my hat into the ring here as a potential off the wall suggestion. What about simply giving the villain a XD6 Energy Blast, indirect, OIF (bots of opportunity), requires a skill roll, limited to power of focus. That way you get the villain able to deliver bolts of energy upto XD6 based on the turrets and bots surrounding him. The power is useful and can be taken away by removing the 'bots of opportunity'. This takes away any considerations about the mechanics of controlling the towers etc, it just means that the villain can subvert them to his needs. If you want him to be able to stop the turrets attacking him then you use Damage Negation with the SFX that he prevents them from properly targetting him. More than one way to skin a cat.... Doc

Re: Let's talk about movement The main dichotomy comes because we mix up number of effective actions I can do with how fast I can run... If you want a decent resolution then separate out movement speed from actions. I reckon action speed is worth probably four times movement Speed. So we get Actions (8 points per point) and Speed (2 points per point). Both start at base of 2. One additional stat. So, all damage is now based on how many metres per turn you run. Not had any thoughts on how many metres per turn equals 1D6....

Re: Help me grok HERO! I ran a fun campaign many years ago where we made agent level characters and had a schtick, a one dimensional superpower. One guy was invulnerable, nothing could physically damage him but that was it, another was super fast another could go invisible. Each power was turned to supreme levels, overwhelming, but one dimensional. Was fun. A collapsing building nearly wiped them out. Invisibility not effective against falling masonry, there was almost nowhere to run and too many hazards to go too quickly in the dark and mr invulnerable was suffocating under the main fall of masonry... That was because we forgot we were not full three dimensional superheroes and thought we could handle anything. Only Mr Strong saved us that time...

Re: Help me grok HERO! One of the things that we say is that in hero you can play what you imagine. I think that the message to the player is not that he cannot play this concept but that, in gameplay it might not be as satisfying as he imagines. As Gojira says, a transform like this will be frustrating for the player or the GM often both. If the player wants to warp flesh then there are all kinds of things that can translate into as powers. As for the transform, a few key limitations could make it a non-combat power and cheap enough to permit additional stuff that could work in combat... Doc

Re: Help me grok HERO! Just going to steal back your sig here though. If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck and feels like a duck then what else do you need? I think that saying it simply fools senses diminishes the effects somewhat But yes - it does not provide flight or swimming beyond what you already have. Doc

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy Hmm. What always surprised me was that mature settings like Greyhawk, have not tried to expand the base of their setting by producing information to allow other settings to be used in it. Rather than repackaging Greyhawk, of the Forgotten Realms for a new generation of D&D player they could produce a HERO gamers guide to Greyhawk and see if they can draw in sales of the setting from other systems... It would need a HERO afficionado to ensure that HERO was not being used to play D&D but that the guidance was there to use the setting to play HERO. But there are lots of mature settings that might sell more if they were easier to use in other systems. Doc

Re: Help me grok HERO! In which case you might be looking at shapeshift usable as attack rather than transform.

Re: Help me grok HERO! Hyperman and Manic Typist are right, that was the first thought that went through my head - what does he mean, he wants Transform. It is one of the key tricks of playing HERO, divorce yourself from the power lists and sit down and think about what you want your character to actually do in special effect terms - I want him to fly and leave a trail of flame, I want him to have a burning aura that only hurts the undead, I want burning globes of fire for eyes that allow me to see through illusions and into the secret thoughts of those I gaze upon. I want a really cool staff that gives me authority in the eyes of anyone that looks at me. When you have that list you can begin asking some mundane questions like, how fast does he fly? Will the fiery trail hurt people or does it just look cool. Only then might you want to begin trawling through the powers to see how you might accomplish the effects you want to achieve. It is back to front from most other games but is crucial to making the game work properly. Doc