Where are the Hero Gamers?

Started playing Hero System at the end of 3rd Ed/beginning of 4th.  5th is my favorite, so far.

Figured characteristics caught my attention and 6th's removal of them means I won't be using THOSE rules.  I don't consider the removal of figured characteristics as an improvement to Hero System.

I've played a lot of different TTRPG's since my beginnings in 1979, and the Hero System is the set of rules that I would have created if I had been told to build my own set of rules.  There is NOTHING that the Hero System can't do.

What I'd like to know is why are TTRPG's turning into table top cooperative video games?

Where are the Hero Gamers?

HERO gamers are out there, it's just we are outnumbered by d20'rs.

We have a good collection here, however, I think the Venn diagram that overlays, GM Style, player style, genre, experience, maturity, makes it difficult, more difficult than TT, to find stable long lasting games.

What I'd like to know is why are TTRPG's turning into table top cooperative video games?

I think it is the advent of 'Narrative' empowered role playing and Meta game mechanics.
Cortex, Blades in the Dark.  Narrative control shifting from GM to Player to Player and back and forth, it really wants to wrest narrative control and give it to a player to move the game forward. Whether this is seen as more democratic, trusting players to move things along and not always have the singular vision of the GM with players at the margins. I am not sure, maybe a little of all or part.

It may be in part to mess with order of actions, where, as in Blades in the Dark, basically a mimic of the series Leverage.

In reply to lensman (msg # 219):

I've been trying to get my players to "own" the story-line for years.  Changing the rules won't "empower" the players.  They have to want to be "in-charge".
I like gaming much better when the players take my loose plot and make it their own.  To me, that shows that they are there, not just to kill a bunch of "monsters", but to role-play.

The few times I have tried to take the lead and move the plot, the GM has resisted it.  Old school DMs that have been running games and putting blinders on the PCs.



Anyway.

Hello to the Hero Gamers out there.
Keep crunching those advantages and limitations.

I think TTRPG's are turning into table top cooperative video games because of the number of cooperative video games that are available; during the advent of the RPG, they were almost non-existent. In most cases, an RPG leans heavily on creative writing, and most of us 'write what we know'. For a long time, TTRPG's leaned towards cinematic tropes and attitudes. Now they're just moving forward as the rest of the populace does.

I really don't putdown anyone who plays other games or other editions. I'll tell you what I think of them, and it may be hurtful and negative, but each of us likes what we like and we cannot alter that. We can only deny it at our own direct expense.

I was introduced to 4th Edition HERO way back, so I'm biased in that direction. However, I seem capable of telling the same stories with 6th Edition, and since it is the latest, that's what I default to. But whoever likes the others, that's fine with me.

I also like D&D, and have enjoyed 2nd aka Murder Edition, 3rd aka Tier Edition, and 4th edition aka Incompatible Wargame Edition without irony. Haven't really gotten into 5th, and my brain doesn't like it - but the Advantage/Disadvantage system is a really good idea, and I've cribbed it for other games when I'm in an experimental mood.

As for Tabletop direction, I dunno. Seems to come down to the GM and where the players end up pushing the game.

Oh, doubles post, but where might one put a homebrewed idea at?

1. Homebrew setting using HERO system could go in chit chat

2. Ask for a new thread for the Homebrew, have a title in mind.

Oh, no. It was more of an idea, a modification to the rules as opposed to actually running a game myself. I'm a terrible GM - I get distracted and frustrated far too easy to run a game on RPOL.

In real life? I can run a game. RPOL's glacial pacing messes me up, combined with the fact that I cannot see what is delaying my players.

But no, I was simply noting the existence of "KS: Everything" on computers and wondering "Well, what stops a player from requesting this?" I assume that it is vague information about everything, but if this is meant to simulate the Internet, that can get very, very specific quickly, especially if the player is The Brain and has a stupid high Intelligence score.

So my brain wondered, "As a compromise to my players who want all of the knowledges, why not create a custom Talent using Universal Translator as my template and just create Universal Scholar or something like that?" It's not as effective as KS: Everything for the cost, but I don't have to rule that it can only be taken by Automatons or some nonsense like that.

Well, that was a quick turnaround. Just started getting into the system and first, I'm just looking for general advice before I dive into the deep end.

Well, HERO is the first and oldest universal RPG gaming system still currently active. It's undergone six editions, but most of us generally talk and use 4th through 6th, which is when it became a universal system. Everything in it is resolved with d6s, sometimes a hell of a lot of them, so get about thirty of them if you play in real life.

Or ask a Warhammer 40k Ork player if he'll hook you up with a few. Just respect his superstitions.

The "main" game of HERO is a line known as Champions, which is about Superheroic face-slapping, and it generally sets the standard for the upper cap of power in the system. This game knows it can be minmaxed, and is generally rather friendly to them for an old-school game. It can be broken, but most of the stuff that can snap your game in two is helpfully labeled with warnings or stop signs - everything else can still break the game, but you have to work harder to do it.

Well, after seeing a pretty damn good write up of a character from the setting I'm thinking of using it for, I was seeing how I could best represent certain constants in the universe. Trying not to put the cart before the horse. Making sure I got most of the system down before I start a game. The setting is One Piece.

One Piece is a setting you could simulate with the HERO System. I had a friend try to translate the infamously player-hostile Exalted setting to HERO with some success, only running into difficulty with Perfect Defenses (which I recommended using Desolidification as the standard for that). HERO is very flexible, and has a surprisingly high upper power curve.

I was going to use it for some really high-powered games before. Devil May Cry, Dragon Ball, and so on. A few things kept tripping me up, though, some of which I mentioned in the other thread.

Is there anything new out for HERO? I have both 6E and Champions Complete. Is there anything else someone would want?

Mm, I also wanted to use it to run an Aliens vs. Predator game with separate but interwoven campaigns wherein you played as humans, as Predators, and also as the Aliens, like the old PC games.

Not from Iron Crown or DOJ Inc. As for books that are useful, well - that depends on how you get them or what you need. I sail the digital ocean for booty, so I only worry about cost when I have a surplus and I have a chance to throw money in the direction of the local friendly game store.

I'm surprised you'd allow a xenomorph as a playable character. Barring queens or the praetorian purestrains, they don't really have a lot of individuality going for them. Yautja, though, I can totally see playing, and boy are those guys bored.

Bundle of Holding is running a HERO System 6e and Champions 6E bundles.

https://www.bundleofholding.com/presents/Hero6E

*wipes at the cobwebs*

Wow.  It's been over a year and a half since anyone posted here.  Not much HERO activity around, is there?

I'm doing some necromancy since I'm considering running a game here in a few weeks.  I'm currently running a F2F game, and want to finish that up before I start anything else.  While I have some ideas, I haven't pinned things down much beyond superheroes/Champions, and HERO 6E for a system.  Thought I'd see how much interest there is here first.

Still a few of us here, some of us moving much slower than we used to but still interested.

Oh yes, there are still a few of us interested in a Champions game.

Yep, more of us than you'd think.

HERO isn't the most well-known system, even though its original predecessor has been around for over four decades and should be more popular. I recently discovered it and love it.

Still here, haven't played HERO in a couple years.  Honestly found PbP to be a challenge for combat.

Yeah, I have found that, too.  It doesn't help with how intricate HERO combat can be.  Still, challenges can be overcome.  It's probably going to take solutions tailored for the individual game, though.

In any case, I'm still trying to condense all the ideas in my head down into a single, coherent concept. Yes, I am aiming to do better than DC movies. ;)  As well as work out how much game I can safely run.  A Justice League or Galactic Champions game is likely greater in scope than I can reasonably handle at this junction.  Ambitious ideas can be a lot of fun, but they can also be a lot of work to run.  I should probably keep things a bit smaller until I get some more experience running here.

I have decided that whatever I do run, it will almost certainly be an all female team.  But one of the things I kept going back and forth on is whether to do a shared origin game or not.  Which would also make it a single source game.  They overlap, but are not the same; most incarnations of the X-Men are single source, but not shared origin.  Assuming that that the people reading here are my likely pool of players, any opinions on origins?

In reply to novi (msg # 239):

I think single origin games have the distinct advantage of pre-unifying the PCs before the game begins. Same or similar backgrounds give more reasons to hang together.

This is a big part of it, and has influenced my own game design and also my preferences to a large degree. When combats can take weeks in PBP, they just kill momentum I've found. Even in tabletop sessions, where they can take hours, eventually it becomes un-fun for me. Some of this is down to the way some games work. HERO is great for making stuff. It's like a fun minigame in and of itself. I feel that most of its crunch is actually front-loaded. However, there's still too much in the actual gameplay, which is becoming more and more of a dealbreaker for me.

I don't want to go full narrativist systems, necessarily. PbtA games aren't my favorite. But I feel there's a sweet spot there. Cortex Plus Heroic was kind of close to it. I feel like making HERO more viable from the perspective of accessibility would be stripping back some of the details, and certainly making post-chargen gameplay faster and easier with more narrative options, but without necessarily sacrificing all the stuff that makes it what it is.

I have one game I'm already working on, so no time to try to come up with something for this, but eventually I'd love to do something with a supers engine. Really, I'd love to see a sort of "HERO Lite" that kept some of the detail but embraced some looser, more broad game units and streamlined gameplay, too.

Almost all of my play is by PBP these days. If a game bogs down in certain areas, such as in combat or something, it makes it very hard to keep momentum going, and in PBPs, momentum is everything. Lose it and your game is typically sunk.

Hey folks!

I'm new to the HERO system and have been playing on RPOL for 10+ years (mostly GURPS). Ultimately, I'm trying to see if i can find some people to play with in a PbP setting and build my familiarity with the system.


Hope everyone is well!