Doc Democracy

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers? My biggest piece of advice for running the game is hide the nuts and bolts. The players do not really need to know point values for anything at all (until they are messing about with VPPs). Hero is great at allowing you to sweat the small stuff and get things working the way you want them to. Neither the system or the character sheets (as provided) do anything to add character or feel to the game. As a new GM, I would suggest you pick out those things you think the players need to play the game and then design a character sheet that is full of the detail necessary to evoke the themes and tropes you want in your game - Hero leaves that entirely up to you. Doc

Re: Game Design: Philosophy Of Templates So where do users dictate a need to breathe air - and drowning rules are all part of the rules?? Where do users dictate that default senses are human visible spectrum, human aural spectrum etc? They dont, they are part of the default human template. Hero goes a long way to providing a blank canvas upon which to make characters but some of the constructs are twisted simply because you shouldn't start at the default Hero position to best make the construct. This is not about introducing character classes, it is actually about deciding if it is possible to get to a blank slate and whether there might be some useful templates, beside default human, that might usefully be applied to that blank slate for the benefit of the game.... Doc

Re: Glorantha Hero

Re: Glorantha Hero It is fundamental to the setting. The idea is that Heroes can HeroQuest to change the mythic realities of the world. There are myths that are well established in the world and by ritually repeating the myth people can access magical powers, effectively 'tuning in' to the mystic resonances of that myth to get relevant mundane effects. Such rituals are easy HeroQuests, walking down well-trodden paths on the Hero Plane. True heroes will explore off the paths on the Hero Plane and attempt to wrest those myths to slightly different outcomes, thereby changing the resonances and providing them with magical abilities that might never have been seen before. However, there will still be huge numbers of people re-inforcing the old paths. The true test of changing the mythic reality is spreading your truth wider until it supplants the old one. Glorantha is big enough however to support more than one truth and those who claim a truth different to the one held by your tribe are obvious heretics to be treated appropriately. With Glorantha geeks such flexibility often leads to huge arguments over which truth is real. I think that the mantra - Your Glorantha Will Vary - best represents the setting. It has been made such that your campaign will change the setting and, hopefully, mould it around your players who will be the centre of the action. Doc

Re: 6th Edition Hero System

Re: 6th Edition Hero System

Re: 6th Edition Hero System When your a grizzled veteran you dont need a character sheet to refer to, but when your a grizzled veteran you dont need to buy a new edition either! The character sheet is definitely for new players, the better the GUI the better the access to the game system. New players and GMs are not equipped to custom build a Hero character sheet and a few pre-loaded ones in the game would go a long way to getting rid of the "its hard to play" syndrome. Doc

Re: 6th Edition Hero System

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations Sold to the man, for free. Drop me an address in a PM and I'll send you a copy - I'll send Steve the most beat up copy - it's yours Steve use and abuse at will. My wife will be happy - I will only have one copy of the book! Doc

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations Another "I cant believe these have not been mentioned yet" is Michael Scott Rohan's Chase the Morning; Gates of Noon and Cloud Castles. The first of those is the best and the other two dont add too much as they essentially are variations of the first novel. Chase the Morning is one of my favourite novels. Doc

Re: Help! Just returning to the game, need character build advice Are the players new to Hero? You might want to give some consideration to keeping lots of the stats etc 'under the hood' to begin with. I have tended to give beginners very descriptive character sheets with only those things that they need to know - new players usually welcome less detail rather than more and Hero has LOTS to dish out. For example, I would be asking the players the normal sorts of questions about their characters - do they see them as out of the ordinary in any fashion - unusually strong etc. I would leave anything that isn't unusual off of the character sheet (at 25+25 that would probably include most of the stats!) Players usually want to know about their characters 'counter' stats - CV, STUN, END, BODY, PD & ED. They want to know where they are. Other than that you can get away with ignoring minorly increased STR, CON etc At this level I would keep the speeds identical (unless this was one of the supernatural abilities) that means that eveyone moves/acts twice in a 12 second turn. All of this keeps the detail from the bog standard stuff and allows the focus to be on the supernatural powers and prevents the detail obsessed withint he group wondering about what increasing each and every option might do, or worrying about them not being increased. An easy character sheet for the mentalist might note the counter stats, then have a few rows for things like Strong Minded (High EGO with possibly a few addition things but described in genre words), Resistant to Persuasion (Mental defence and possibly high PRE as well) and Ignore Me! (Invisibility, only versus people with EGO 17 or below, does not work on machines or recording devices - but I would just describe the game effects rather than the mechanics). You could add a few skills, possibly some combat manouevres and weapons and the character is good to go. I would keep points absolutely away from the character sheet to begin with - they are a distraction from the game unless the players are designing themselves. Once they have accumulated experience points they may begin wondering what to do with them and, by that time, may be enjoying the game so much that they will be so much less put off by the complexities that you have hidden away. 25+25 keeps things very 'real' or low power and only seems a small amount when you are seeing every one spread over a huge range of possibilities. Increasing the number of points available begins to make the game more and more high powered and you may have to put more thought into exactly what limits you want to place on power growth in the campaign. Not sure if I have answered the actual questions you asked but I hope that my rambling is useful.... Doc

Re: Sweep, Multiple Power Attacks and Autofire Yeah, was amazing how quickly my players in Runequest stopped considering blade venom when I told them that if they used it then their opponents would too....regularly rather than just the really nasty ones. Doc

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace

Re: build help: regen man Have you thought about buying more STUN and giving him a limitation that he falls unconcious when he loses 30 STUN. So he may have 30 STUN as part of his characteristics. In this scenario he would lose consciousness having taken 30 STUN, one delayed REC step on taking 40 STUN, another on 50 STUN, 60 STUN and GM discretion on 70 STUN. Now if you were to buy 40 STUN that was only for the purposes of speeding recovery (-1?) the character would need to take 80 STUN before they were looking at even the first delayed REC step. You could also buy additional REC that was only for the purpose of recharging the extra STUN (-2??) Doc EDIT: damn, that'll teach me to start responding and then do some work! What Neil said with some extra REC suggestions

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace I like this system better than the rules as written. It makes sense that if an opponent has made an excellent shot then I should have to make extra effort to block that effort. It doesn't quite go into making the opponents to hit roll the target difficulty but it probably makes it more important more often. Doc

Re: Can someone explain knockback to me? It is quite simple really. You understand how to calculate the BODY of an attack, yes? Well when someone attacks they look at the BODY of the attack and then subtract the result of 2D6 (or 3D6 if the attack was a martial art of some kind, or 1D6 if the target was in the air). So in your example of a 9 BODY attack and a roll of 8, the target of the attack would be knocked back 1 inch (9-8=1). Got it? Doc

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace I agree with you. I think that several powers were 'expanded' in scope and Shapeshift was reworked to be coherent with those. That has created a significant potential overlap. I think that Steve could significantly rework all of these powers to make them coherent underneath a banner heading of Sensory Shifting. That should enable a wide range of effects under one heading and allow for simple fooling of senses to actual changes to the substances senses percieve. Doc

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace Hmm. This keeps tumbling through my head and Sean keeps making the words spin. I blame his professional training. I think Steve needs to think about how this is presented. I would also make a change to the basic concept. As follows: When I have changed shape people look and see the shape I have turned into. Shapeshift does that for me. There is a base cost to this of 10 points for four predefined shapes. (You can take a -5 adder for being limited to one shape). If I have Shapeshift and I change shape into a tree - I do not look like a tree, I look like a tree shaped man; I do not feel like a tree, I feel like a man. Now if the sight group is purchased then not only do I have the shape of a tree, I look like a tree, though when touched I still feel like a man. If the shapeshift includes touch then I have the shape of a tree, look like a tree and feel like a tree but I dont have a pine fresh scent... I think that this makes the power very much like Steve had it with the emphasis on senses and yet provides that basic power to change your shape. The addition of senses makes it more and more difficult to 'notice' that you are shape-changed (though I'm wondering what the SFX for IPE Shapechange would be. Should the purchase of all senses be equivalent to making the power IPE?) Doc

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace Why is it that we happily accept that fire powers might require many game powers to simulate in a power framework. EB, KA, Flash, Flight, force field etc. But, for a shapeshifting character then one power should be able to accomplish all of the game stuff that we want? In the plastic man examples above what is it that the player is wanting to achieve (game wise) with them? Example 1 - To slow his fall from a great height or to travel faster than he might be able to walk. Definitely seems like Gliding to me and the fact that he shapeshifts is the SFX of that power. Example 2 - Not sure what exactly the character is trying to achieve here. If it is comic relief then its free and might attract a beanie. If it is a way of communicating - pop in a letter and information or a delivery is made to the character then it is more like telepathy, two way radio senses or a small gadget VPP. Again the shift to a letter box is SFX - indicating the power in use. Example 3 - stretching limbs to allow better access ot reach - definitely stretching of some kind. In none of these do I see a particular need for Shapeshift as a power unless the player indicated to me that they wanted the ability to use these SFX forms regularly in non-standard ways - such as shielding people with glider wings and blocking their sight, or fooloing someone into posting their letters in my mouth etc etc. That would kick in the need for shapeshift - a game effect need, not something based on what the character looks like or how he achieves other game effects.... Doc

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace

Re: 6th Edition Hero System What gets me about the discussion here is why it is being talked about as an either or situation. I dont even think that this has to wait for a sixth edition. I think Sidekick was a great idea. I think that a Sidekick with enough added to make it a playable Champions game, or a playable Fantasy or Star Hero game would be even better. It would provide people with a cut down game that they could play and possibly lead them into purchasing the full rules to get access to the other cool stuff in there. Once convinced of the system and how it works the big book is not so much a frightening prospect as an inviting one. I think that the only problem with Sidekick is that there is still a lot of work to do for the novice. Champions, or FH-lite or SH-lite would give them the basic game. Doc

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace It is why the name of the power is the stumbling block. Energy blast is used to create all kinds of attack powers that are not energy or blasts. We got over that break in terminology a long time ago. Either we need to swallow the power as it reads or ask Steve to change the name of it.... Doc

Re: Images question Ooh! ablative DR - I like the concept!! Doc