I knew I forgot something!  Just the general chatter thread.  By the way, is there a thread you'd like to see?  Just ask and we'll see if we can add it!

I think it might be nice to have a thread or series of threads that allow characters to be posted, like a character archive.

It could even be not necessarily character sheets, but character ideas and backgrounds.

You never know when you may need to tap into a rich source of character concepts.

Maybe different threads for different Editions, or different genres... I don't know what the optimal would be.

Sounds good, probably best for concepts though as sheets are rather spammy.   We'll give it a go as a general thread, then if it grows enough we might split it off into popular genres.

Welcome to all the new members, glad to have you!

Hey, great just was added.

Welcome to everyone.   I'll probably have questions eventually.

Oh, haven't noticed that I was added too. :D
Greetings to you people around the world!

As I am now in a better place than I have been for about a year.  I am thinking of restarting a fifth edition game, based on the Serenity/Firefly universe, with a couple of added elements that I like.

Wondering if anyone here would be interested.

I would love a game like that.

Serenity is always good. I love river tam types but just as much I like Mal sorts.

Is that the same one that I played in a while back?

I believe so.  Hopefully, I have learnt a few things, as well as hopefully trying to find players that will not bail as soon as the game starts.

Not saying you did, everyone else seemed to just stop posting.

Hmm... here's hoping that the next eight to ten weeks don't absolutely overwhelm me. With no games of my own running right now, I'd like to give that Serenity game another shot as well, if you're okay with that. I think I'm going to change my character concept though, if you're okay with that.

ETA: If it does restart before graduation though, dear, please forgive me if I'm slow posting the last week of April and the first one of May (for the run-up to as well as the week of finals).
This message was last edited by the player at 01:44, Sat 12 Mar 2011.

My apologies to Gnome_de_Plume, the RTJ was there and I didn't even realize it!  Welcome to all of the new members!

Welcome!  I'm sure I'm doing something horribly wrong in the 6th ed game I joined (not to mention the early ed game I'm running) but we'll figure it out soon enough.

Hello, just saying hi to see if anyone is checking these threads out.

In reply to DieterDarker (msg #16):

Sometimes, yes. :)
Greetings Dieter.

Hello and happy May 1st to you!

So, there's no board dedicated to 6th ed, so I'll ramble here a bit.

Just started readin through the Vol 1 book. Not too much has changed since 5, though as mentioned, the loss of figured statistics coming from your base characteristics as well is definitely a big change. Beyond that, the rest seems like mostly pointless name changes and streamlining/extra complicating powers by removing separate powers for certain things. Seems an easy enough change from 5th to 6th so far.

I agree.

My question though, is why, with so few changes, is this a whole new edition?

That I have no idea of why. If anyone knows, it would be the people at Hero who published it, at least I would hope they know.

Seems to me like they're just trying to get money out of it. Could have just been some errata to the old version.

You could be right. I mean it's something we do for fun playing these games, but to the guys that make them, it's a business they need to make money and sell their games or they are gone.

The change from Figured Characteristics to Purchased Characteristics was a big change, and not something that would translate easily with the structure of 5th edition.  The points required to build a character as well had to be changed, to allow for the purchase of the new characteristics.  Some powers, indeed, were changed little if at all.  But others were rolled together into one power with advantages and limitations used to model some of the previous abilities.

Did they need to create a new edition?  Yes and no.  The changes were significant enough to warrant a sizable chunk of pages, and when dealing with a product line it naturally reaches the end of a life cycle.   Once you have reached the end of that cycle, in order to stay in business you must generate new revenue.   The changes were enough to warrant a new edition, and the things they've done have been pretty good.  The goal is indeed to get money out of it, without money they will go out of business.  It's the same business model that every company uses, with DOJ it just so happens that Hero is their product line.  They don't dabble in TCGs, CSGs, board games, etc.

They do one thing, and do it pretty well.  Does it hit the budget, you bet.  Especially when you come into the edition at the end.  But, for instance, using me as an example - I had gotten out of gaming altogether and sold or dumped everything except my old Rolemaster books.   When I came back to gaming, 6E was about a year old.  But the comments on what DOJ was doing with the system, plus one picture sold me on the new edition.   The comments were that the binding was the best its ever been and the core books were the most solid set to date in terms of durability.   That's a huge plus.  Then I found that if I bought the books directly from DOJ, I'd get the PDFs for .02 more.   Another plus, since I read mostly from PDF these days.   I use the books for the F2F encounters, but at home I read electronically.   Then I saw the cover for Fantasy Hero and that was it.

I still haven't managed to get a F2F group started, but I wholeheartedly support the decision to create 6E.   It was the right move for the company and the books are the most attractive presentation of the game since....BBB.

That's my .02!

Is ther a way to get just the pdfs of 6th ed rules? And what would it cost? Being that I am disabled and only able to work part time, my funds are extremely
limited.

The PDF bundle for both books is $50, at www.herogames.com

But, if you're only interested in the character creation portion then you might look for their damaged book + PDF.  They have the Character Book (damaged) + PDF for $29.99.  There's probably a crease in the cover or something like that  so they've discounted it.

Or there's always bittorrent.

I do have the Hero system basic rulebook (for 6th Edition rules) which I got for $22.99 + taxes (Canadian dollars) Which has enough stuff to create characters easily as well as stuff useful for gming (rules type stuff you know...). Bought it in the local comic book and games shop.

Not that I wholly endorse this, but if you want the books for free I could provide links for direct download of the pdfs. All of them virus free, as personally checked by me.

I like paying for books to help out companies, but sometimes companies don't need my help, nor am I able to give it. Sometimes it's between downloading and playing, or not playing at all.

In addition to that, I'm living in a desert at the moment, so there's no way for me to acquire a physical book. So I've found a lot more resources for downloading books.

Eventually I may go back and purchase the books that I use a lot and enjoy, letting the others sit and collect digital dust.

Tehjo I would love links for that, as I am on a brand new computer I would hate to get it infected with a virus. Also over the decades I am sure  Have given Hero games hundreds of dollars worth of business. Also being poor I need to save money for things like food and shelter... little luxuries like that.

Hello Hero people! :)

Activity got down a bit here and since I am working on a Hero System using game here on rpol, I decided to add some words and thought about it here.
Don`t have much experience with Hero, but I own the 5ed book and a lot of PDFs, including the 6th edition.
Now I am trying to make up a TRANSFORMERS game on rpol using Hero 6. :)
Don`t know how well that will run, always thought Hero isn`t suited well for pbem gaming, but we will see!

Sounds interesting, keep us informed of how it goes.

I will... I will. :)

Its a long-time project. Actually a re-build of my Transformers game here that died a year ago. But never deleted it because it was a lot of fun. I used the WUSHU system and was surprised how well it worked. Espacially in a pbem game.
But It showed some drawbacks, which sure could easily be balanced out by increasing the details and make up some houserules - but thinking about that lead me the point where I said to me: "hey, with an increase of choices, details and rules in general, I can just as well use HERO!"

I've always used mutants and masterminds, which in your opinion is better? Between mutants and masterminds , and the Hero system that is

AzureKnight... :) hello Dragonball player!
I know MnM 2nd edition and can say that for a d20 game it is very good. I was surprised when I saw it. My opinion is that MnM reached with that the league of games like HERO, but playing in the same league doesn't make them equal ;) haven't seen a game that is as good as the Hero System.
I wonder how good GURPS 4 is, it is said that it has similarities to Hero since that edidition, similarities in parts where the game always was "behind" Hero.

But after all it depends what kind of game you want. Hero is customizable for nearly everything. GURPS always was quite fixed on "hard", "realistic" gaming. Good in that area, but not as versatile as Hero.

From what I've seen in my rules perusals, as I haven't played a game in it yet unfortunately, MnM(3d at least) is considerably less customizable than Hero is. It's limited like all D20 offerings are.

Having played all three editions of M&M, and the 4th, 5th, and 6th editions of Hero, I think I can make a good distinction between the two.

Both systems are points-based, effects-based systems. You buy effects. A Blast could be a shotgun, a bolt of lighting, an energy beam from your eyes, a psionic bolt etc. This is true in both systems. Both systems are good at doing a variety of things. Fantasy, Supers (obviously), and sci-fi are all easily done.

The difference between the two is in the play style. One is more freewheeling, and the other is more tactical.

In M&M, you have a freewheeling style that replicates the feel of combat in comic books. You don't have hit points or the like, and fights can last a while, or they can be over in a couple rounds if you fail your saves. If you enjoyed the climactic fight at the end of the third Matrix movie, where they're in a city-spanning brawl, then that is the kind of thing you can do easily with M&M.

In Hero, you have a more tactical style of play, like you find in D&D. You have hit points, and more resources that you have to keep track of, and movement is based on a hex grid. Makes it an excellent choice for grittier games.

That's the big difference between the system structures as a whole. Hero is nice in that it really hasn't changed much over the last three editions. There's some cosmetic things, of course, but for the most part the mechanic is the same.

M&M has changed through the editions. Here's my breakdown on the way things worked.

1st ed: Weaknesses were worth 10pp each, period. Powers could not be taken past your power level, which meant that some characters, such as Flash, were hard to do at lower levels, while characters like Cloak and Dagger were easily done. It could be fairly unbalanced, as someone with enough flaws could get to be a good deal more powerful than the other players, but the lack of power frameworks meant you had to have a lot of points to be a generalist rather than a specialist.

2nd ed: Drawbacks now grant a variable amount of points depending on severity. You can buy powers without saves to any level you like, but powers with saves were capped at Power Level, which means you can have someone who flies at the speed of light, but you couldn't have someone who can punch a hole in the moon. A well-balanced system, allowing for a great deal of customization without going overboard.

3rd ed: Drawbacks no longer grant PP at all. If your vampire can't take sunlight, that's a complication now, and will give you a hero point if you burst into flame walking past a window. Power structure is unchanged, but you have two new attributes to buy up, and more defenses. Meaning in addition to not getting PP from drawbacks, you have to shell out more PP on attributes and defenses. Heavily skewed towards characters like Cyclops or Superman (a couple tricks, that they do well, but no real flaws).

In reply to Caranamon (msg #36):

Lil creepy that you recognized me so easily lol :P

Gurps is a good system if you want to play a franchise that doesn't have a RPG to it, but as for super powers its not the best game.

Thanks srgrosse.

In reply to AzureKnight5190 (msg #39):

I am the GM there ;)
It would be a shame if I wouldn`t recognize that name...

i realized that after i sent the message, i felt so embarrassed :D

So are you two ok with each other now? I hope so, us Hero system fans need to stick together.

All good on my end. :)

Of course! :)
And if not... I do have a bunch of NPCs to take care of that... ;)

Ha ha ha ha, good!

In reply to Caranamon (msg #44):

Considering the current NPC, thats a real scary thought :P

So does anyone here play heroclix?

Never played it. I have seen it getting played at a local comic shop once or twice.

In reply to AzureKnight5190 (msg #47):

Bought some when it first came to germany. Nice idea, but need to sell that again, no one here to play.

Seems like an ok game, the only way i found out about was because i was looking up Green Lantern, and Alien minitures, and Hero clix is the only person whom i can find than make DC comic minitures

The mini's are really useful for Hero, as they fit nicely into a hex grid.  The game itself is fairly good, saw a fair amount of play at my local club before it vanished suddenly.

I seem to have bad luck with Hero System games here on RPOL. Every one I have been in has either gone inactive, not even got off the ground or just not worked out for me. Can anyone give me some Hero system love? At this point I will be happy to play some GM's npc(s) in a game.

I have a Champions game.  It's a little slow at the moment, due to my health and the holdidays.  But I've been on rpol for a couple of years and don't plan on leaving.
It's an old version of Hero, 3rd edition or earlier, since I've not had any books for years.

But it's there if you'd like to check it out.
link to another game

Cool I will check them out... is 3rd edition the big blue book edition or before that? Because I stil have my BBB even though the binfing is wrecked and teh pages are falling out, I can't bear to part with it, too many memories of fun times GMing (and playing) Champions.

It's the BIG book with lots of pretty colors and whatnot.  I'm only a little familiar with later editions, but we'll see if we can adapt anything.

No no , the Big book is fine, I have played and gmed with htat book a lot. Now, do yoy have room for a character or do yoy have an npc... any type of chracter you are lacking in the game?

We have room for another character.   We could use just about anything.  We already have a telepath, though she hadn't checked in for a bit, but anything else is welcome.

So far our other characters are:

A winged blaster.

A blaster with melee weapons as well.
(both of them are minor bricks)

A martial artist (though that player has vanished recently)

A cyborg (with various techno powers)

A flying minor brick with melee weapon (this is my NPC, and could be replaced by your character if we get too many people)

Well in that case, maybe I will make a speedster.

Also fun.   My maps are pretty crappy, but I should be able to accomodate you.  You might have limits on your speed, though, like 30" or something.  At least in combat.

In reply to nuric (msg #59):

That's fine as long as he's able to go supersonic when not in combat, I will figure out my character idea a bit more then submit a RTJ.

I'll be busy for the next few days anyway, since I have a weird work schedule.  I'll do what I can if you rtj my game, though.

It will be expensive to go supersonic, I think, but it's doable.

Ok well... close to supersonic then...

There was a friend of mine who had a Champions game I was in.  He had a speedster named Mach for that reason.   He spent a serious amount of points (like forty or something) on "non-combat multipliers", so that he could run past the speed of sound.  He wasn't very manuverable in combat, but he was already going too fast to really hit.

It should be okay.

Well I did up an RTJ and put it in for you.

Got it.  Thanks!  *smiles*   Of course, now I have to go to bed, but I'll get too it sometime in the next few days for more imput.

Applied there too! :)

I would be interested but the only books I have is 5th edition and some of the Until super database books for 5th edition. I couldn't make 3rd edition character.

If you're patient with me, we might be able to translate one, if you wished.

Wow.  2012 is here.  Thanks to everyone that's joined our family here on RPOL.  It's going to be a sad year, I think.

For those unaware, DOJ (aka Hero Games) turned a few people loose, including Steve Long.  So expect very few new titles out of them.  And that's sad.

I had just opened my comic/game store in 2003 and not long after that they gave us FREd.  Hero Games was strong and I tried and tried to convert those D&Ders to a real game system, but they just couldn't live without their levels and their d20s.

So.   My resolution for '12 is this.   To encourage and try to get as many people out and running Hero Games as possible.

We have 27 people as a part of this group now.  By year's end I'm going to shoot for 100.   I'm launching a new game, and anyone interested in a Champions game is welcome to give me a whirl.  This one will be a slow game, but my resolution is that by 2013 we'll either all have gone up in dust, or we will be launching into a new story arc and starting the new year off with a new plot!

That's my personal goal.  My next goal is to see 10 games running, which including my fledgling game means that's 7 games started and running by years end.  I know we have the players, I've got 27 of you here now.  So I'm going on a recruiting drive for more forum members to start building my resolution.

To those that are here now, can you help us out?   Do you have a favorite genre?  Want to start dropping posts into those genre threads and spur conversation?   Do you have a favorite edition?  Start dropping posts into those threads and spur some discussion.  Want to help me recruit and grow the forums?  Drop me a PM and let's talk about giving you some authority on this forum.

Go Hero!

In reply to Kevlyn (msg #69):

Yeah!
Very good post! I am missing a "like it" button... :D

We can give it another try to have a Champions game.   I'm more into the earlier editions,but I can try 6th edition.

I am actually setting up some groundwork for a FRed game, still in the early stages.  Once I have some more on that, I will throw it up here and see where it goes.  For right now it is planned to be a high school/academy game, although anything else is so far a little fuzzy as I try and get a timeline together

I occasionally make a stab at running something Hero based, and find that I am not happy with the setup, but with a new years resolution on the line I'll have to up my game (so to speak).

And as a general FYI, for the games that I run I will use the most current version of the game.  My goal is to encourage people to try out the 6th.   My hope is they will enjoy it and want to convert to it, thereby helping to expand the sales of the game.  More sales means the company stays in business.   Without the sales, they go under and we get no more Hero system.

Just thought I'ld say ello, and all that.
I've been in several Hero System games here, but haven't started one myself. As my son recently purchased a video game within the genre, I'm going to attempt a work up in the fantasy area using v6. Anybody with advice or comments will be appreciated.

Hello!

Unfortunately, I haven't been in many Hero System games. I was given the 5th edition book as a present a few years ago and read all through it. I really liked it to the extent that I got a few more but I never had a chance to run or play in a game. After 6th Edition was announced, I made a game but I had some real life issues so it doesn't go that well...

and that's as far as my playing experience goes...

Are you still looking for players for that game?

Yes, I'm still working through concepts with the players.  I'm doing this one a little different.  I'm taking the initial concepts, working with the player to get something that will fit into the Champions Universe well enough.

Once all of the concepts/sheets are in then I'm going to give the players a chance to approve and/or suggest revisions to the other participants.  This phase will allow the players to alter their visions to fit better within a team framework, and potentially allow characters to create ties to the others.

Will this work out for me?  Dunno, but I think it might allow the players to help shape the game they're going to play which may engage them and keep the attrition levels lower!

That's the thought, and come on over and jump in Vampir.

link to another game

who do I see about getting removed from this board??

I PMed Kevlyn, and that was months ago, and I am still here.  I can't seem to remove this from my sticky list!!

KEvlyn has not been on the board for almost three months. You should contact the site admins to ask for their help.

Perhaps they can create a secondary GM/administrator for the board

Yes, the recent update means that any game that you're technically part of will automatically bring it back to you.

I thought Kevlyn was still around, but he tends to come and go.   The only thing to do is wait until he's back, and just keep dropping the game when it pops up, I'm afraid.

Still, I like it.  It can be annoying, but it can also bring back games that I'd forgotten about.

it is a nice function... until it starts being annoying... so like everything else...

I do wish Kevlyn would have made someone else a GM so that this board could actually prosper...

I'm assuming that he honestly thought he'd always be here to moderate it.   I'm not big on co-GMs either, I'll admit.

I forget what the Site Moderators' ruling on this was.  It was in the various discussions had after the update recently, though.
Contacting them couldn't hurt.

yes... that's what I read on the RPoL message boards...

that they'll go in and remove you from the game if you already contacted the GM and it's been a couple weeks after he didn't reply...

Okay.  Sorry to see you go, but I hope it works out for you.

Life and all that.

But here I am.  And a second or third person to help keep it going would be good.

Volunteers?

I'm here if someone has questions, but my dance card is too full to take a more active role, I'm afraid.

I can volunteer.

In reply to Kevlyn (msg # 1):

Anyone still watching this space?

Yep

Aye

We're just a somewhat reticent group.

Yes, this game is like many discussion games.   We chat up a storm when someone prompts us, but discussion dies down quickly.

Hey, Nuric. You could always open up your game to others. I for one would love to have more help against Dr Destroyer.

I suppose that's not a bae idea.    I hate to throw people into the middle of what's happening,  but it might help make up for the attrition we've suffered.


Anyone up for a third or fourth editon game?

Hey, you could always put them in one of the payloads. You know, one of the rockets had a clear patch on the walls, so that heroes of a previous attempt on his base could watch as the world rockets past in their last moments of life....

Always up for a game, but would feel guilty if I didn't try to re-boot the one I'm running at the same time (6th ed).
If you're not already in the thing (link to another game), you would be welcomed. But be warned that the GM is, apparently, terrible at keeping the thing going.

I know nothing about 6th, save that it is a bit of departure from previous editions.

They departed from utilizing figured characteristics, and modified some of the abilities (mostly esoteric ones) upon the same lines. Otherwise it's still pretty much like fifth, and even somewhat close to fourth.
The write-up shows a different formula for figuring attack success, but it's mostly a change in how it's represented. In other words, success or failure comes out the same whichever method you use. It's all still hero system so it's not as different as hype has suggested.

I'll take a look at your game, but I'm thinking I'll need help crafting a character, as I have no reference materials for 6th edition. Wait, Mental OCV/DCV isn't based on EGO?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:28, Sun 09 Mar 2014.

I can try to come back. Real life kicked my tail every way but up the past year or so, and I haven't really recovered.
I do, I think, still know roughly where my 6th ed. book is though. 5th ed. I definitely know where it is'

In reply to cptcthulhu (msg # 98):

Not only does it no longer base combat value on the characteristic, but offensive and defensive value are separate. The intent appears to be to make a character point spent on any given characteristic to add no more to the character than a character point spent on any given power. It makes some sense. Prior to version 4, one of my most memorable characters was a martial artist that had spent half of his points on DEX and SPD. Three versions later, using the same methods would result in a forgettable piece of cannon fodder.

For those of you who may not know, Hero Central is likely to be extinct by the end of December 2014.

Some GMs are already planning on moving their game over here, this is a good time to let folks know that the presence of Hero System players is not just represented by a dead looking series of threads.

Too right.

I have seen some with the opinion that RPOL is not for them, citing no Die roller calls in Posts and a few layout objections, however, I think  majority of GMs and Players will make RPOL their new home.

To which I say Great!

I'd still love to give HERO a try, with a couple of different game ideas. I might have to try looking for a game again soon.

It can be a tough game to play on rpol, though that might just be me.  :)

I like RPOL just fine, but finding games anywhere can be rough! Especially the type of scenarios I'd like to play.

The whole pbp thing gets a little crunchy with a detailed system, but that doesn't detract from the enjoyment a detailed system can provide. Unfortunately, the amount of crunch is usually determined by the r:r frequency (role to roll).

What kind of scenarios did you have in mind?
Which genre?   Super hero, modern, fantasy?

Modern. Grittier, actually. Well, I have two I'd like to do, to explore both Heroic and Superheroic.

The Last of Us (Heroic): A game in the setting of The Last of Us. Grim, gritty, survival (and survival horror) in a post-apocalyptic world devastated by the Cordyceps outbreak. It could be a very similar setting with actual undead zombies (and zombie animals!), but I think TLoU would work fine. Survival, maybe a reason to travel across the wastelands from one safe zone to another. Maybe one safe zone falls, and we have to escape and find somewhere else.

Mass Effect (Superheroic): I'd looooove to play around in the Mass Effect setting, as a biotic specialist and following the Reaper War (with some slight modifications to canon; let us assume that only the Reapers, not all AI, were wiped out, yeah?). Lots of plot hooks in the wake of a galactic war. I'd like to base it on my own playthrough, where I went Paragon and stuff, more details to come if the game ever happens.

Sadly, I don't know either of those settings, but sounds fun.

I usually avoid "gun games".   Guns usually suck the fun out of a game for me.
Not sure why.

If it helps, guns are all futuristic sci-fi types in Mass Effect (though biotics means psychic/gravitic powers), and not that common in TLoU. It's 20 years after the cordyceps outbreak basically brought down global society. If you need to know what they are, you know that fungus that "zombifies" ants? Basically, it's a version of that, but it mutated to affect humans.

Amazing game with a really dramatic and gut-punching (but hopeful) story.

Sounds pretty funky.  :)

Lol. You think, Soul?

Throughout my life, one thing has always been true.
• Failure is an option.

In reply to soulsight (msg # 113):

Well, nothing we can do about the death of HeroCentral.

True, but like in the comic books, a coward dies a thousand deaths but heroes are retconned anon.

Wanted - Players

I'm attempting to re-energize these forums, please do not hesitate to look in if you have any curiosity.
 - soulsight

How do we do this? Is there a new game that could start or  some Thread discussion that could start?

In reply to lensman (msg # 116):

I suppose we could we could try. Did you want to make an announcement on the Hero forums? What sort of game?

@ cptpatriot

I run a game currently and with the games I play in, syatyonig a game would detract from all those.

If there was something I could contribute to, I could that. If not running is ther some sort of HERo topic we could all discuss?

Welcome newcomers!
If we keep talking, maybe the momentum will build until it actually generates new games.

In reply to lensman (msg # 118):

I've been working on stuff for trying to create Passive Telepathy, which is more of a sustained version of telepathy that is more about just popping into a room and hearing everyone's secrets.

The assumption is that other people's surface thoughts are actually a sort of emission that the Telepath can pick up.

Why not build it as a sense?


So to read everyone's surface thoughts when you walk into a room is a 32 pt ability.

The basic rule of HERO:

If a power works like an existing power, it is that existing power.

in this case it is Telepathy, which works to read others thoughts.

A passive form of Telepathy would be something like

14 Telepathy 4d6 (standard effect: 12 points)      1 END
   Area Of Effect (1 2m Areas; +1/4)
   Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4)
   Constant (+1/2)
   No Range (Mobile not needed, if No Range AOE; -1/2)
   Receive Only (-1/2)
   Extra Time (Extra Phase, Only to Activate, -1/2)
   Limited: Surface Thoughts Only (-1/4)

I would also suggest making it a Compound power, unless character already has it, with
Rapid x10 or x100 for Mental group, that way he can sift through all in the area.

In reply to lensman (msg # 122):

I never thought to combine it with Rapid for the Mental sense group though I can see people arguing that Rapid would not affect Telepathy since Telepathy is a power.

I'll have to look for my PDFs to see for myself.

I was just envisioning a sort of Passive Telepathy that would work with a PER roll. This sense would just give the mentalist an idea of what surface thoughts were in any given direction, allowing it to bring about the trope of "I heard someone think about shooting the President, but I didn't see who was thinking it".
This is keyed on the assumption
No need to make the sense 'Rapid' if it's just about noting the emissions around you.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:13, Mon 05 June 2017.

Should there also be considerations for the target detecting they're being scanned?  Either add Invisible Power Effects +1/2 or a separate pool of Telepathy dice strictly to achieve a +20 over EGO value?

Targets would also still be allowed a Breakout roll when first contacted, correct?

In reply to DBCowboy (msg # 125):

I suppose IPE is required for the passive nature and +20 Ego to make them not aware. Also more dice of effect to pull it off without them becoming aware.

Actually according to 6E1 p151 Perceivability of Mental Powers "The Invisible Power Effects Advantage (6E1 338) can conceal a Mental Power from Mental Awareness, or even prevent the target from realizing that he’s being attacked with one (though he still gets Breakout Rolls). A mentalist can also prevent a target from knowing he’s been attacked with a Mental Power by achieving a +20 effect on his Effect Roll."

So IPE or extra dice for +20 EGO but both aren't required.

This message was deleted by the player at 07:59, Wed 07 June 2017.

In reply to DBCowboy (msg # 127):

Ok, so IPE.

Do people use or are familiar with the Turakian Age Fantasy Hero?

I am kind of done with an all comers open universe, I do like Turakian Age, only played two campaigns in that universe and they were both short lived.

In reply to lensman (msg # 130):

Never played it at all. I know it supposed to tie in to the main Champions universe and Takophanes but that's all I know.

Don't think I ever played a fantsy hero game officially set in the Turakian Age.  I've had the worst luck with any Fantasy Hero campaigns.

Bad luck for me was mostly on Hero Central, those GMs on that site, I think I played in four different games, all of which had different flavors, but each committed a major sin of GM, if not rules incorrectly applied, then NPC shadow over PC.

Which of course leads to the great debate of Magic in Hero, as near everyone wants to have Magic. My theory is everyone just wants to use the system for more than just skills or CSLs.

Which leads to Gritty v High fantasy. I think Game of Thrones has influenced a lot in gaming, at least as a reference point.

I like gritty, however I also like high concept. As GM I am a big proponent of Package Deals, but not in the small way of most.  I don't care about racial or professional package Deals , I am talking about package deals for things the players may try to attain, not knowing the full results of attainment.

My guess at preference, veteran gamers like gritty, new players like High Fantasy, with a big influence from the campaign history/description by the GM.

Last time I ran a Hero game around a theme, it was the "System Shock" series of computer games. For the uninitiated, the first game had you exploring a space station full of mutant zombies and altered critters and cyborgs, trying to stop an AI from destroying the Earth. In the second game, you were in a spaceship dealing with people possessed by an alien hive-mind... plus taking orders from the original AI while being opposed by a second one.

The game I ran was set during the second game, using the station from the first. I had packages for weapon specialists, technical types (able to hack systems and modify gear), and psionically-capable people. Duplicated all the psi powers from the second game. Basically well-armed military types in a sci-fi horror story.

It went really well until inter-player drama broke the group up.

That must have been.. special, to have drama in that scenario.

I do have a question about character creation. I know as player I love to use my considerable knowledge of HERO to build my character, yet I have over many campaigns had many different GMs not have character creation solely in the hands of players.

The most hands off I ever experienced was where I described what I wanted to play, origin, motivation, skills experience, and basically built the narrative of the character, the GM then built the character mechanics after a series of questions about opportunity for selection of events that granted a package deal.

Can this work for a Fantasy game? The GM does know the world better than any player could.

In reply to lensman (msg # 135):

One of the best GM's I ever played with had a sort of hybrid way to create characters in his fantasy campaign. He asked them what they wanted to be, and any that spouted out some standard DND thing were handed a simple character sheet to add a name and description to. Those that were familiar with HERO were told the base points and maximums, then encouraged to create something unusual.Those familiar with RPGs but neither genre nor system savvy got one on one with the GM.
It made character creation take longer, and spawned some unusual characters (there's always that guy that wants to play a pixie), but it seemed a very even-handed beginning.

Tone, it come s down to tone.  Some people want to play characters form Ice and Fire, some want to play characters  from Xanth.  A GM can set tone but he really has to make sure the players get it.

I don't recall anything quite so guided by a GM.  Closest I can think of is when we would roll for Race and use Background/I Was Just Growing Up tables to generate random events about a character.  Battle Lords of the 23rd Century had some fairly expansive ones and one my friends made his own for his home-grown fantasy game.  But still, even with 100 entries per table, make enough characters and you begin to see some repeats.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:49, Thu 08 June 2017.

In reply to lensman (msg # 137):

I had to close down my Champions game, I was in soulsight's other game too The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing but only towards the end of it.

I'd be interested in 5E or 6E Champions game as a player, I just don't have time to run one as a GM :(.

I generally prefer D&D to Heroes for fantasy games :), but I might be willing to give it a go :). A Xanth campaign might be interesting....though it's been so long since I read the series my memory fails me about much except that the Source of Magic was a Demon :).

In reply to JRScott (msg # 139):

Try his 5E game, scott. I enjoy it almost as much as I enjoyed yours.

In reply to cptcthulhu (msg # 140):

What's the name of it?

Thanks pal, sorry I couldn't continue.

link to another game

In reply to cptcthulhu (msg # 142):

Thanks :). I'll look at it when I get home to work on a character, I can only see one thread though, I assume the rest is hidden from public view :).

I'm in DWCowboy's game too :), have been for a while :)

What Edition is he using?

In reply to cptcthulhu (msg # 144):

6th

Any big differences between 5th and 6th?

In reply to cptcthulhu (msg # 146):

Yeah particularly in characteristics. No such thing as figured characteristics in 6th

Do you know of any active Hero 6th pbp games? I've been contemplating getting into one.

I've opened a thread in the ''GM wanted'' forum looking for someone to run the Deathstroke adventure, but so far no one showed interest.

In reply to DiegoD89 (msg # 149):

I don't have time to GM :(

That's bad because i really wanted to learn the system. :(

In reply to DiegoD89 (msg # 151):

Maybe one of the others can :)

Let's hope so!

I'm looking to play in a Champions game, there are no game masters around here?

In reply to DiegoD89 (msg # 154):

I'm not sure I think lensmen and some others run games.

hopefully they'll post soon :)

HERO is my system first, all others are but shadows.

I have learned my lesson on RPOL, I cam only run one game at a time.

There must be someone around here willing to run a game for this newbie :(

I am looking for an experienced Game Master to run the old Champions adventure named ''Deathstroke''. from there the game could evolve into a regular campaign. i have a slight preference for the 6th edition because Hero Designer supports it, but i also have the famous BBB from the 4th edition so either one of those would be ok.

The GM should have little work converting characters from 4th to 6th editions because the Hero system is not completely different from one edition to another.

A group of 3 to 5 players is the most recommended for a Play-by-Post game, anything beyond that will just slow down the game, even more using this particular system.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:59, Sun 25 June 2017.

I've tried, but any game I've run has degenerated into a bunch of people waiting for me to advance things while I stare at the screen at a complete loss for words.
To put it succinctly, concerning the position of game master, I suck.

I know how you feel, i felt the exact same way a while ago.

But in this case, i am suggesting that the GM run a published adventure, Deathstroke.

There shouldn't be too much work on the story for the GM.

I think one hurdle is actually having the required material. It's an old 2nd-edition scenario from '83. DriveThruRPG doesn't carry it in PDF, and 95% of Hero Games' store is 4E and later. They have nothing from 2E at all.

I tried to find it as best I could. Came up dry.

So unless you have a scan of the book to share with a prospective GM (which is frowned upon here, as you know), you would have to run it yourself.

I could scan my copy of the adventure and share it with a GM, but first i need to know if there will be one.

I had a player drop from my Dark Champions game.

I am looking for one more player. Please Search my name in the Players Wnted for the game description, Hudson City: Shards of Empire.

The game is 8-9 months old, it is listed in category: Intrigue

There is a public thread by reading that, the Game Info, the Wanted Player thread, you can see the style of the game.

The game is gritty and dangerous, all KA are +1d6 and -1 STUN mod, as an example.
Set in a Hudson City where the PC are the only ones to have Super powers, origin unknown
Focus limitation may not be used for any powers. Equipment pool used

Any questions you can always ping me here or Rmail me, or strike up a thread with an RTJ.

A player just pointed out that I had not turned on the Wanted Players bug.  It is now on

I'm considering some pruning on the threads, here, but desire the opinions of all concerned before I do so. What should and/or shouldn't be removed and/or retained?

The threads that haven't been posted in for 7 years probably could go :)

I was going to say all threads not posted to within the last two years, which means, all threads would go, excepting three or four.

In reply to lensman (msg # 166):

That would probably be fine :)

In reply to lensman (msg # 166):

Exactly my point.

In reply to lensman (msg # 166):

You might want to consider any threads of importance to be Stickied in some way for reference.

Anyone taken a look at the new Kickstarter: Champions Character Creation Cards?

Link available on Hero Games main page

I looked at the kickstarter and was not impressed.  The best thing about Champions is the freedom to design the character as you want, and trying to put that into a few cards isn't going to work.  This might work to help beginners or to throw together a simple character quickly, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Are these the only HERO games on RPOL currently?


This message was last edited by the player at 20:44, Wed 24 Oct 2018.

I'm planning to begin the pruning by consolidating the three threads for the oldest versions into one.

I will be eliminating
• Older Versions: 3rd
• Older Versions: 2nd
• Older Versions: 1st Edition

These will become
• Older Versions

No one has posted in these for a LOONNNNNGGGGGGGG time, so I don't think it will be a problem.

As far as I know lensmen.

I see no problem in that soulsight.

Is everyone ok with eliminating the 'Into the Breach' and 'Kickstarters' threads? They seem to have served their purpose.
As 'Introductions' seems to be, for the most part, useless I propose removing this thread and expecting introductions to be done in 'Chit Chat' from this point forward.

Makes sense

's ok with me

I'm good with that

These threads have not been very active, just looking around for HERO activity.

HERO System games, current status



This message was last edited by the player at 23:34, Mon 14 Jan 2019.

In reply to lensman (msg # 180):

Thanks for the heads-up.

I was lurking on the dteam.  It was a very interesting premise.

How do you export as text in Hero Designer 6?

First you need a Text export template.

Which can be found in the Hero Designer thread in Hero games website

Then dl it, and select it from the
HD Current Character > Export > Select Export Format

The Preview Character, that should give you the character in the text format

In reply to lensman (msg # 184):

Perfect. Thank you.

Developing export templates isn't extremely difficult. Here's one I worked up for games on here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9bsg...9i/RPOLTEXT.hde?dl=0

Well, with all the free time on my hands these days, I keep feeling like I should take a shot at running a game.  Which just leaves all the actual details of setting up a game to figure out.

In particular, I know I want to do some group character and game generation.  And that I expect to be a little selective on group membership.  Not first come, first serve, but having some questions in the rtj to get some sense of the player and what kind of game they want.  I'd like to avoid trying to avoid having the Punisher babysit the Power Pack, for instance. :)

I'm trying to pin down the questions I want to ask.  I think one is going to be: "Tell me your 3 favorite superhero comics, movies, shows, or other media."  I'm also thinking something along the lines of "What genre(s) and/or tone(s) are you hoping to see in this game?"

Anyone have any ideas for questions to ask?  Or other suggestions for things to get lined up before I start looking for players?

In case anyone's interested in old 4e books, Bundle of Holding has revived their Champions bundles again.  There's the 4e Essentials and 4e Universe bundles.

Have a look:  https://bundleofholding.com

Game over, man.  My game is done; yet another casualty of this dumpster-fire of a year.  Maybe when I'm in a better place mentally I'll try again.

Yep that happens.

But you tried it and probably learned a few things.

It's the only way I know to get better at GM'ing.

In reply to DBCowboy (msg # 190):

Please note that both Twisted Fairy Tales and Walking Dead chronicles no longer exists.

Sooooooooo, what ya startin' next?

Come on, we know ya got ideas.

In reply to DBCowboy (msg # 192):

Nothing right now.   Most of my games die. So I'm reluctant to start a new one.  My Champions game is the only one still going strong.

I guess if I  started a new one. It would either be just like Champions or with "reformEd" villains,  or even non killing villains

Of course,  it would be 5th edition.   I have a tom of 4th edition books that I could use.

In reply to DBCowboy (msg # 192):

You talking to me?</de Niro>

Between continuing depression, and the recent purchase of Civilization VI (it was on sale), I've been fairly unproductive.

Still, I have some ideas; it's just a matter of wrangling them down into a few, coherent options.

And one of the things I did discover is that there is a large pool of players out there, so I can probably afford a more specific proposal than I did last time.

My ADHD addled brain refuses to stay on topic long enough to seriously develop ideas.  Still, it is coalescing on a few discrete premises of interest.  Most of which involve some kind of team theme.

1.  Female Avengers - Higher power, set pieces around the globe, with a multi-part plan the heroes need to stop.  But not sure how hard to lean into feminist/all-female team nature, or how the team got together.

2.  Female Sentai (Sailor Moon/Power Rangers) - I'm a bit more nebulous on where to go here, whether playing it straight, or with twists of varying darkness.  Or just swipe a villain from one and have let the heroes be more free-form.  Though possibly with anime tropes encouraged.

3.  Static Shock - Mass empowerment event in the city, and most of the victims turn to crime.  Doesn't need to be teen heroes.  I'm thinking GM assigned powers with some flexibility to tweak them.  Also not sure how many other superhero/villains should exist in the setting.

4.  It's even less developed, but I keep wanting to do a chess-themed villain team at some point.  Part of it is trying to work out exactly what their scheme and scope is.  Something better than just a villain theme team.

I'll probably eventually take this up on the general rpol Game Proposals, Input, and Advice forum.  But I thought I'd get some feedback from you HERO folks first, on what interests other people and refining the ideas.

In reply to novi (msg # 195):

The all female teams sound cool. I have less familiarity with Sentai than comic book supers so I can't really offer any suggestions on your option 2, but option 1 sounds like it could be epic.

It's super old and might not translate brilliantly, but the old (OLD!) Marvel Faserip system had a method to randomly generate supers. The whole set of tables runs for pages, but you might be able to pull some kind of generator from it. Unless I'm missing an existing option that works more cleanly with Hero for your option 3.

I don't know if you've already looked at it, but DC has Checkmate who are all about calculated moves and grander strategies.

In reply to stealth (msg # 196):

The idea of an all female group is interesting,  but i have never played a female,  and I'm not sure I would want to (sorry)

Static shock was in the DC universe and he even worked with Batman once.  But now until the 2nd (or further) season

I have toyed with a chess based group before.   The king was the brains but needed protection in a fight (like real chess)  the queen had a cosmic VPP, the night rode a horse and all of his attacks were indirect.  The bishop was the mentalist,  the rook was the brick, and the pawns were normal goons.  The king would have parr of the group attacking one area publicly,  while the "real" location was being attacked and then out of there before anyone would know what was going on.

re: quozaxx - Eh, not everyone is comfortable with cross-play.  I'm not going ask anyone to do something they are that uncomfortable doing.

re: randomness - I'm not looking for truly random powers.  IIRC FASERIP correctly, the tables are not balanced, which is not ideal for HERO.  Besides, the superhero gallery from Champions 6E would be a better place to start.

Anybody else have any thoughts?

When i first joined rpol 10 years ago, one of the first games i joined was a freeform game called "Every Girl For Themselves".
It was a superhero game where players were "normal" people who discovered one day that they had a super power.   The main stipulation was that all characters had to be female.
I joined the game with a nerdy, neurotic, ER doctor with  the ability to summon psychic shields, and found it to be very good game for Roleplaying and character development.   All the characters playing woth me were quite three dimensional and thoroughly developed as people, and the players were excellent roleplayers.  The GM asked me soon after to be an assistant gm, which i accepted, and confided in me that his goal with the "female characters only" rule was to weed out bad rolepayers, either guys who refused to roleplay a female character, or guys who only roleplayed female cliches.
The resulting game was one of the best experiences of my life, with rich story telling and well thought out characters and plot lines.


I know a game where everyone plays a female character isn't for everyone, but after such an amazing experience, i highly recommend it
This message was last edited by the player at 10:53, Mon 31 Aug 2020.

Have you tried the Champions character creation cards(CCCC)

https://www.herogames.com/stor...tion-cards-cardszip/

In reply to novi (msg # 198):

I wasn't aware of the superhero gallery, but will definitely give it a look now.
Maybe not the way round this is supposed to work, but thanks for the suggestion!

In reply to stealth (msg # 201):

I have 2 ideas for a new game.   It would be 5th edition

1.  Heroes:  the players are heroes trying to keep the world safe.   It would probably start as individual adventures.

2.  Villains:  the players are Villains (or perceived to be Villains, )  no killing Villains please.   They would have to be willing to work together

Which sounds like more fun?

Either one could be interesting, but a little more detail might be needed.

There's always the issue with a villains game of how much evil the players are expecting to get away with, so a clear boundary is important.

And heroes keeping the world safe is the bread and butter of the genre - what kind of threats, what scale etc needs to be addressed to set expectations.

In reply to stealth (msg # 203):

They would be standard supers. (200 + 150 disadvantages)

In the villain game. I would have potential players include motivation. What they do when not stealing  and probably more.

re: quozaxx:  Well, I see you've already started the hero game.  But I would say, as future advice if nothing else, that more detail would be good.  Some sort of premise or details that help us figure out what the game is going to be and what kind of characters would fit.  Like I did back up in msg #195.  Instead of "Heroes" I said "Female Avengers."  And right there, you've already got a sense of the scope and tone of the game, as well as what kind of characters would be appropriate.  Or the "Static Shock" game.  I may not have said much, but you already know that no mutants or mystics, and that all of you will be rookie superheroes.

Food for thought.

---

re: Beastttt:  Er, formatting error/insufficient elaboration.  I'm good on random, or at least gm-assigned, powers.  What I really meant was:

---

Anyone else have any interest in, ideas about, questions, or suggestions for the 4 game premises that I mentioned in msg #195?

I'd be running Hero 6th, except with skill level/CSL costs from 5th.

In reply to novi (msg # 205):

I will be using 4th edition books for story ideas.  4th edition could mean anything from 1rst to 5th.  They had a lot of supplements back then and I want to use them.  I do not want killing vigilantes but most other comic book inspired heroes work.

In reply to novi (msg # 205):

I'd have to brush up on my 6th ed, but I'd be interested in playing in the Female Avengers game if there was space.

To get more specific about that one if I could, would it actually be Marvel universe or was that just an example of the style?

That is to say, would there be a Toni Stark or Steph Rogers around?

In reply to stealth (msg # 207):

As with all editions of HERO, the differences are largely certain powers being revised and prices being re-balanced.  I suppose 6th also has the issue of figured characteristics being gone and COM turning into a talent.

And I was using Avengers as a style; I'd most likely run it in the Champions Universe.

And to answer a further question, I'd go with a mixed timeline - some things do have a fixed date and time has ensued, while other characters run on relative time.

But back to stealth's question, the universe doesn't currently include Stark Industries or Captain America.  But that would be subject to character and team creation. ;)

In reply to novi (msg # 208):

Cool, although I'm less familiar with Champions than Marvel, I'd happily read up.

If you get sufficient other interest, give me a nudge!

Hmm...I have a 6th Edition character written up at 400 pts, although thanks to Internet piracy I have access to 5th and 4th as well, and could probably reverse engineer it down.

The only issue is that the character looks and feels so much like a high-tech Dark Champions character, that I had to add "Protective of Innocents" at a 20 pt strength to make it clear that this is not, in fact, a 90's villain protagonist anti-hero - a by-product of my own success. Also, he doesn't have Casual Killer, so one assumes this means he would have the 0 pt Limitation "Reluctance to Kill".

On the other hand, he makes a great straight man to bounce things off of, simply because of how serious I envision him being no matter what is going on around him.

"I'm Batman."

One of the issues I'm running into as I meander towards running a game is, I can admit, is something of a self-imposed problem.  I kinda want all of the PCs to be tied into the overarching plot of the game, beyond just the generic "we're PCs, and we fight what the GM puts in front of us."  But I want to allow more than one avenue for that, instead of just saying something like, "you're all escapees from VIPER experiments," or, "everyone must take Hunted: Crowns of Krim."  And I'm not quite sure how to go about that.  Also, I start chasing my own tail - I should have the overarching plot developed before I start the game, but I can't fully develop it until I know what my PCs are and how to tie them in.

Yes, I'm a lit(film) major with a yearning for tight plots.

Anyone have any experience threading that needle?  Or advice on what I'm overthinking the most?

Part of it is that while that sort of thing can be hashed out in game, I'd like to avoid excessive hash.  I'd like a- hmm, call it a walking start, a bit of momentum to keep the game from getting stuck in set up and dying early.

We would have to account for players dropping in/out of the game, whatever the nature of a game made. Generally one-third of all players will drop a game the moment it actually begins and obligations begin to form, for reasons from the petty to the understandable. That might be the greatest challenge of running a game on RPOL.

That sounds like a dilemma I'd want my GM to have - speaking as a player.

Thinking as a GM, a solution that occurs to me (always more than one, others' mileage may vary, etc) is one that might sting your Lit Major sensibilities.

If you have an overarching plot (it sounds like you're working on that) leave some villains unnamed so a player with Hunted: Doctor Terrible (placeholder name) can attach them to your Evil Organisation^tm as a reason to be involved.

If you can have the room in your planned narrative, then an NPC hero that a PC knows can provide information on the Evil Organisation^tm and lead that character in.

Basically, consider where you can leave openings in your tightly woven plot to hook PC backstories or contacts in without disruption.

And I know you won't need reminding, but while we're talking about a tight plot prepared in advance I feel like I have to say it:

No plot survives contact with the PCs. Chopping and changing your narrative on the spot just has to happen sometimes.

Hero Magazine, Digital Hero, Adventures Club, Haymaker and even Champions 1-2-3E all in the current Bundle of Holding. (they snuck in the 5e book too...somehow)

Smorgasbord of old Hero all rolled up together


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

In reply to DBCowboy (msg # 214):

Dragon clans is not ready for applications yet.  Please be patient.

In reply to quozaxx (msg # 215):

Dragon clans is now open for applications

In reply to quozaxx (msg # 216):

I've Come to realize that I do not have time to devote to Dragon clans at this time.  So I have deleted the game for now

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!

Welcome Archy

What is your genre(s) of interest? Influences? Movies/Books?

So, I'm pretty much open to any setting. (this might be a bad admission given the RPG system) My least favourite is 'supers', like Superman/X-men type thing. Having said that, I just kind of dislike the style of it, but can happily play games with people who are incredibly powerful. I'm not a massive Anime fan but the best parallel I could potentially give is something like Bleach/DBZ or whatever.

I would say my go-to setting is generally Fantasy but I'm pretty happy with anything up to and including Sci-fi.

I've played a lot of fantasy GURPS in the past (and DnD, of course), and Traveller in GURPs. For quite a while I used to also play a lot of World of Darkness, and quite liked the setting but just not the cynical overtones for everything.

LOTR is the best set of movies made in the last 20+ years, and absolutely my favourite. And I'e been on a bit of a slog with fantasy series of late. Stormlight, First Law, Malazan, Black Company, Faust's series.

I hope that covers it :)

Actually only 2 games active. The first 'Champions' game listed was stopped in June 2021.

In reply to cptcthulhu (msg # 245):

Yeah, I should really delete that one called Champions. Sorry.

Well, I'm getting towards a spot where I could run a game here.  As I try and brew up something I want to run, I thought I'd take a quick poll of people here and see if that gives me any ideas.

1.  How much interest do you have in a game where everyone gets powers from a single event at the begining of the game vs the typical kitchen sink team-up team?

2.  What level of episodic vs serialized are you interested in?

1) Im good with that type of game. I often run characters who do not associate their abilities with such events, though.

2) Is there a difference?

In reply to cptcthulhu (msg # 248):

Very much yes, there is a difference.  They're pretty much opposites.  Episodic is like a classic sit-com, in that there is no continuing story between episodes.  Serialized is all about the story arcs continuing between episodes and all season long.  It's a little different with gaming, but the principle is still applicable.

1. I've always thought the 'event' approach streamlines the first portions of these games, and PBP requires as much streamlining as possible.
2. I've always hoped that the character I play would appear the same regardless of the relative episodic/serialized levels involved. This is probably not what happens, but I've always hoped it would.

I very much like the idea of everyone having a common origin, gives a great reason for the PC's to work and hang together.

I tend to like serialized games with an ongoing storyline but occasional one shot episodes give nice breaks and can give an immediate sense of accomplishment or display character development.

In reply to novi (msg # 247):

I am up for just about anything as long as it's Hero System.

But I do lean towards serialized.

Alright, looks like there is strong support for common origin games, if from a small sample size.

I think I have an idea of something I'd like to run, though it still needs a lot more specific and/or proper nouns.  And it generates a few more questions I could use some external opinions on.

1.  Picking your own powers vs GM-assigned powers.  Everyone will be a human mutate from an empowering event at the beginning of the game.  And I'm weighing if and how much I dictate of your characters beyond that.  As character customization is an important aspect of Superhero games.

2.  Age of the PCs.  Some of the plots I'm considering make more sense if the characters are high schoolers or college age.

3.  How much the PCs already know each other vs how hard I have to force them together.

1. I like the idea of giving players some choice of power vs. no choice whatsoever. However if the GM has a very complete concept of a team with complimentary powers, that can work well too.

I think a hybrid of styles would work well, giving a choice of general power types/concepts maybe up to 8 choices, so there is choice and yet some GM control of what powers the characters have with an eye towards making their powers complimentary.

2. The younger the characters, the easier it is to influence them into situations that will create in-built relationships. High school kids have more legal (and often social) restrictions to deal with. I think that college-age characters have many more expectations and often responsibilities to deal with.

3. I think it would be cool for the characters to at least have common interests/environmental backgrounds/social origins. Or some combination thereof. But I would really like it if there was some (not necessarily a lot) early RP between the characters to establish their relationships.

Just my first thoughts, to get folks talking.

1. There's a sort of spectrum here. At one extreme the players create everything about the character with no limits. The other extreme is a set of canned characters with GM-created history that the players can choose from. There's good and bad on both ends, and pretty much anywhere down the line. Personally, I've no preference where a game lands on the spectrum.
2. Another question where there's no right or wrong way to do it. Frankly, I prefer to avoid games focused AT a high school or college. Way too much of that back in the eighties and nineties, otherwise why make the turtles teen-aged?
3. As a GM, I abhor forcing the group together. Join one of my games with a character you describe as a 'loner, who doesn't work well with others' and it is very likely the GM ignores your character deliberately (if you've been in one of my games, you'll know why I used the word deliberately). Let the players know, up front, that they're expected to group and boot the ones that make it difficult give the difficult PC's the silent treatment.

How about a group of High Schoolers/College, kids all part of an unofficial TTRPG Club?

This gives them a common "bond", a reason to hang out together and "fight crime" as a group.  It also keeps the game from being centered at their school.  They could use their TTRPG sessions as cover for their crime-fighting activities.  One should REALLY be a healer so that wounds wouldn't give them away.

It would be difficult to explain how a PC was experimented on, to become a Super-Soldier, but not impossible.

The group Could be built around a couple of Energy projectors, a brick, a mentalist (maybe the Healer), and a Genius/Gadgeteer (think Batman or Iron Man).

The Players should stay away from non-human type Heroes like aliens, gods, and critters unless they have the ability to transform into them when necessary.

The cause of their powers and abilities could be something that they were all exposed to during a game session.  A weird prop.  Transforming energy emanating from a place they gamed at for a session or two.  An entity experimenting on "Earthers" for some reason, a reason for the existence of the Super-Soldier option.

So, I tend to flit between ideas.  While doing something Static Shock inspired still has merit, I'm not as enthused about it as I was a few weeks ago.  I'll probably revisit the idea some year, but not now.

Instead, I'm going to go with a more traditional team up concept, based on some ideas that had been percolating seperately in my head.  It will be an all female team based in Los Angeles.  Standard power level, or so.  Base and team vehicle will be provided.  Further details will be provided in the game.

My biggest issue at the moment is the team name.  The team is going to be 'the Angels', but I'm uncertain what the official name is.  I've thought up some variations, but nothing has leapt out at me.  What sounds good to people?  Does anyone else have an idea?

Angel Squad, Squadron
Angel Flight
Angel Wing
The New Angels
Angelic Sentinels

Force and Crusaders are rejected for being too militant.
Legion implies more members than I want.
The California Angels is still kinda trademarked by the baseball team.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:33, Thu 27 July 2023.

Arch Angels?
Carlie's Angels?
 maybe Angel Force?

Or some tortured phrase spelling out


A. N. G. E. L.

like Anti-crime, National Group of Elite Ladies

Saints
Spectrals
Las Fortunas
Sisters of Virtue
Danger Angels
Lovely Angels
Sister Angels
Angel Sisters (or Sistas)

Just a few off the top of my head.

Amazing Neo-human Girls for Emancipation and Liberation

no, I couldn't help myself.

Everything leads back to the preferred language origin from the West, Latin

Ordo Angelus

I appreciate the help, even if I'm not really using any of the suggestions.  It did confirm for me that I wasn't missing anything good.

In light of the fact that the Champions Universe has a bunch of organizations that may or may not be acronyms (VIPER, DEMON, PRIMUS, PSI, UNITY, ARGENT), ANGEL seems like a decent fit.

Now I just need to get the campaign brief together...

The changes to UI are grotesque. I no longer can be a member of this site.

Any one who s interested in becoming the GM, let me know.

Anything that a custom style sheet might fix?  Suggestion on the development thread?

My objection is the infernal layout, it is structural

There was a button, that allowed the old layout. I've been using that  - it appears to have changed since new years day though.

Am going to look for it again.

If you find it, let us know where it is.  I have a GM asking about it