Doc Democracy

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy Never have I regretted my decision to go into s ience rather than computer programming more than while reading this thread. HERO must be the ultimate system to take advantage of the computing resource now available to us. HERO Designer is a great tool for making characters (though I believe much more so often you understand how to do it the hard way). If there was to be a HERO Campaign Guide, then it would be so much more useful if it were ele tonic with the ability to tweak the settings for everything... If I had the turakian Age but wanted things toned down, then there should be a bar that I could do that on, and get appropriately adjusted versions of villains, beasts and spells. It would be impossible for other systems but I think achievable in HERO. Of course it would not be commercially viable, it would need dedication and monomaniacal focus on a game, but I have seen plenty of that around. However, such a tool would make the kind of tweaking that Vondy mentions a doddle...

Re: Blood-Fueled Magic/Powers See, I like the mechanical ideas behind the zero recovery END reserve and the pro-rated recovery for that reserve, but there is nothing in them that even begin to link it to the amount of blood/life drained. NuSoard is right, the transfer power was ideal for this as there was a direct link between the BODY drained and the power gained. If I was to pro-rate the recovery it would be linked to how much damage I did with the bite attack rather than the time taken, however, I would also make drinking to drain blood more difficult in combat than drinking simply to do damage... Doc

Re: Death & Maneuvers There is the alternative of having death in game terms simply mean out of action for a long time. Normally if you get to negative your BODY you are dead. For player characters this might simply mean very seriously injured. It might mean that the other players have to do something unusual, such as seek out a real surgeon or a voodoo practitioner to get their man up and running again. It might mean fighting through to the spring of eternal youth on a remote island somewhere in the bermuda triangle. It might be something as 'simple' as doing a favour for Davy Jones. It is for you as GM to decide what different game mechanic destinations actually mean. It depends on how supernatural you are happy with. I could see the 'dead' character in some games accompany the group as a ghost, or a disembodied voice, or reincarnated as a parrot until the quest is done. If it is a game standard, then you simply impose that, adding bureaucracy to a game like HERO is never a great idea, it is already at the high end of bureaucracy as it is... Doc

Re: Battle of Detroit In any major defeat there are many opportunities for small superheroic victories....

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill What do you think the authorities in the UK would think of a superhuman that killed other superhumans. I don't think that even The Sun would give him good headlines.... Doc

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill Consequences I am fine with and in some games death is just another consequence. In HERO I have never killed a PC in the general run of the game. I have taken a PC to the ointment of death and then, out of game, discussed with the player what should be done, I have talked to players in advance of a 'difficult' session and asked what they thought of fatal consequences and flagged those moments that might result in fatalities (thus allowing them to make those choices), but I have never killed a HERO character in the general run of play. Doc

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill This has always been a problem with playing superheroes with role players. Too many have the attitude that evil will always win because good is stupid. To me that says that good is stupid because it tries to ensure a better world for everyone where principles cannot be maintained in the face of extreme action. To me, extreme action is exactly the place where the application of principles is heroic. As GM, if my players become practical then so will their enemies. Expect to be making more characters lads, coz when one of you fall unconscious the next phase will see you dead - just practicalities... It does not make for a good story, does not make for a good game and does not highlight the diffence sufficiently between the good guys and the bad guys. If you present the hero with a dilemma where he must see the deaths of many innocents by doing nothing, or taking the only action he can and slay the aggressor (with the potential loss of more innocent lives) then you cannot expect anything but pragmatism. If the player knows the GM values heroism and trusts him, he wil not accept the proferred choices and will seek the heroic option. I hated the end of 'Children of Earth', I will never watch Captain Jack ever again, the character was ruined in my eyes. Too many times he had sought to prevent the deaths of aliens, how could he even countenance the sacrifice of his own grandson. Not heroic. I think the duty of the GM is to set the tone. IF the players resort to practical executions, then there is a message not being sent. I had a PC stand trial once for the death of an NPC. I wanted the players to think about what they did as superheroes. The trial went well as the players, giving evidence were torn apart by the prosecuting attorney. However, as the players were asked to be the jury, they gave a split verdict for the hero. Spoiled only by the actions of the hero's arch enemy who mind controlled the jury to deliver a guilty verdict - played out in a later scenario as the heroes became aware of the mind control and saved the hero from public execution before proving his actual verdict from the jury. Doc

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Re: Help me grok HERO! Gravity has always been one of the 'difficult' things to model in HERO. People often go with what they feel best about but Zane is right - most go with the adjustment powers. This comes to one of the key game concepts of HERO. What you have to do is think about what the game effect is going to be before you think about the power. What is it exactly that you are trying to achieve. So instead of thinking "I want to change the gravity (an environmental effect) so that must be Change environment!" you think "I want to reduce the ability to move inside this area, so that must adjust the movement abilities of anyone in that area, so that is an adjustment power!". It can be difficult to get your head round at first but it comes quickly and you see the power and versatility that provides you. Doc

Re: Help me grok HERO! Welcome to the system - looks like I am the first to comment. There will be lots of others who are far better character proofreaders than me. To me the big thing about HERO is that there is no absolute measure of a character. It is not like D&D where you can peg something as first level or fifth level, everything is relative to everything else. So, just by looking I have no idea whether you were attempting to aim for a superhero or a masked avenger type hero or something else. My questions would be round some of the characteristics. You have bought a very high DEX - your astrophysicist would appear to be able to be a world class gymnast. I would have understood if the character had lots of DEX dependent skills but he does not. If you are not a superhero, then SPD 5 is pretty high but if you are then it is quite low for someone that is not a front line brawler. Your main attack is 5D6 AP - VERY low for a superhero. Not bad for an agent type. Just look at the use of that weapon on your own character - 5D6 averages at 17.5 STUN and 5 BODY. Your physical defence is 7 PD. So you will deliver 13 or 14 STUN if you hit, probably about 35 STUN over a round then you'd get to recover 14 STUN. If everyone is in the same sort of offensive defensive ranges that makes for a reasonable game. If someone buys 7D6, no armour piercing then they'll do about 24.5 STUN per hit and possibly take you out in the first 12 seconds. Not so much fun. If you want quick sharp combats then this is the way to go - but you encourage people to hit first and hard... Making characters is a great way to get to know the system - the next step is to run a few through a couple of combats to see how they stack up and how effectively the points you used can be applied. Doc

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities A sentiment that strays into sexism itself, though immediately rectified

Re: The Good and Bad about Marvel and DC Doc D Bad: I cannot see Halle Berry and not show some appreciation. Its a weakness...

Re: Hero-D&D system merge? If getting rid of all that then why aren't you just playing D20? It would be lots simpler... Piles of dice are only an issue in Superheroes, otherwise there are fewer dice (and they are all six sided). If you want to get rid of STUN/BOD counting then you can just count STUN and do the same BODY as the number of dice rolled. That gives you the same average BODY and allows you to distinguish between being close to unconscious and close to death. I also think the 3D6 roll is a good thing as it means that there is a greater emphasis on skills than with a D20 system. However, you could just replace 3D6 with a D20 if you really want. I didn't want to play D20, I wanted to play HERO but I presented it like a D20 to ensure the players I was talking to gave it a fair chance and were not too put off by a completely different look. Doc

Re: Hero-D&D system merge? I did present the game like a D20 game...[ATTACH=CONFIG]43826[/ATTACH]

Re: Starting a 6th ed campaign and was wondering... I think that there are not absolutely immense differences in gameplay from 4th to 6th but an immense difference in build decisions. Personally I would not embark on wholesale conversion of stuff. I would be inclined to use the 4th edition stuff unconverted until I came across something that just didn't work when used or would obviously not work, then I would simply rebuild from the ground up rather than try to convert. I think some of the conceptual changes, especially the decoupling of characteristics, mean that you should look at the concept of the 4th edition resource and then build in 6th as if the 4th edition detail never existed. I think you might be surprised at how little conversion you actually need... Doc

Re: Optional Manuevers-when do you use them? I think my criteria have always been that I will allow stuff that allows the players to be more heroic. So, if there are options, including manoeuvres, that add to heroic actions then I allow it. However, if the idea is to be more efficient then I allow it with the proviso that if the players use it, then so will the bad guys. All of them. This evolved from the problem I had with players routinely using poisoned weapons (way back when we were young). Eventually, I told them that I expected them to be the good guys. As such, only to use poison when it was essential for success. If they wanted to use poison then they could expect their opponents (all of them) to use it too. If they did not use poison, only those opponents that I wanted them to see as the lowest of the low would use poison. As it turns out, players did not want a guarantee of having poison used routinely against them and so did not use it. So. my answer is that I would probably allow players to use any manoeuvre and only use them against the players if I thought that the reason for using them was simply to be efficient rather than cool and heroic. Doc

Re: Homing Why, thank you kindly Mr Taber. Appreciated.

Re: Champions Cheat Sheets for Rookies Yeah. Have a look at the discussion on character sheets. New players can be intimidated/distracted by all the numbers. There are a few ideas in there about sheets for building and sheets for playing - two different things with very different requirements. I like the idea of M&M STUN, though I do think it may provide bad incentives if they can eat the STUN they lose. Doc

Re: Homing Personally I like to do it using continuous uncontrolled (requires attack roll every phase, ends when attack is successful). You make the attack, pile in the amount of END necessary to keep it going multiple phases and it will keep attacking until it actually hits or runs out of END. Doc

Re: GM vs Player narrative authority

Re: DumDum Ammunition