Why I think Hero system rules.

[Brian]

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Math or: A Primer on Champions/Hero System

   I. Introduction
   i. Fifth Edition: "The Ultimate Gamer's Toolkit"
   ii. Your Basic Supplements
   iii. The Dice You Will Require
   iv. Other Suggested Equipment
   II. CHARGEN
   i. Basic Stats
   ii. Derived Stats
   iii. Skills
   iv. Powers
   III. Combat
   IV. Special Effects
   i. Powers Again


I. Introduction.

   The Hero system, AKA Champions.

   A flexible, powerful, and math-heavy system, and my obsession of the moment.

   First off, this system is not simple. It is not really very easy to learn (unless, like everyone else who will happen to read this, you are a mathematical genius), and has some minor nuances of number-crunching that plod at times. And yet, despite all of that, the system is amazingly flexible, and allows you to do so much with absolutely no ceiling on any aspect of the system (except for speed... but we'll get to that later).

   So to begin, a lengthy and involved system deserves a lengthy and involved review.

i. Fifth Edition: "The Ultimate Gamer's Toolkit"

   That's the title of the book.

   They aren't kidding, though.

ii. Your Basic Supplements

   In addition to the main Hero system book, it is highly suggested that you buy: nothing.

   That's right. You don't need to buy an add-on. The only books they had the last time I checked didn't contain new rules, or new sets of skills or powers. They only had new examples of how to achieve various power effects using the existing powers.

   Everything you will ever need to run the most complete possible Hero system game is in the book, by itself.

   It lacks in only one department: there is no pre-made setting for you to use. But you could buy one if you wanted, or just make up your own.

iii. The Dice You Will Require

   The only dice you will ever need for this game are three six sided bones. That's it. You can bring more, if you're throwing around high-level normal damage rolls, or if you want everyone to have their own three d6s. But that's it. No worrying about getting your lucky blue-and-red-speckled d10s mixed up with Jim's, all you need is a bag of the standard d6s that you can buy fifteen of for a dollar.

iv. Other Suggested Equipment

   A calculator, if you want to use the hard-n-heavy rules, and do all of the numbers, instead of using any of the more streamlined rulesets. You can do it in your head, but that's a lot of number to juggle. If you want accuracy and detail in your campaign, the system can do it pretty much as far as you're willing to carry it.

   A hex-map, player tokens, and a ruler, if you want to use these. The Hero system gives you exact ranges for powers in inches. In inches on a standard hex-map, which you can acquire (as I have) for less than twenty dollars. (Bets that you'll end up like me, and never bother using it?) If you can teleport 10 inches, that's ten inches from your point of origin on a hex-map, and each of those hexes is a full inch, so you won't need a ruler unless you either want to, or you just play on a tabletop. You don't even need to stick to the grid system, then.

   Scratch paper. Not really required, but good for passing ninja-notes (Hey, GM, I stab Carl in the back!), for working out any math issues without a calculator if you feel like it, or for keeping track of your current endurance.

   Other players. The hardest component to assemble.


II. CHARGEN

   Character generation. A process that takes a while to get a handle on, and yet, allows you so much leeway when it comes to developing your character. A 'normal' human would be composed of about maybe 20 character points, plus limitations.

i. Basic Stats

   Each of your basic stats starts at a value of '10'. Normal human maximum is 20, minimum is 1.

   To build your stats costs a specific number of points, based on how useful it is to your derived stats, and how many skills are based on that specific stat.

   Strength costs 1 character point to raise 1 point. Simple enough. Your strength determines how good you are at doing strength things, and how much damage you will do in HTH combat. Every five points of strength (round up) equals a single damage class, in addition to boosting your own REC and PD.

   Dexterity costs 3 characters points to raise 1 point. More complicated, but for good reason. More than anything else, dexterity is your 'combat' stat. It influences how often you get to act (your speed), how well you can hit (your O.C.V.), how well you can avoid being hit (your D.C.V.), and all of your dexterity based skills.

   Constitution costs 2 character points to raise 1 point. This is the stat that tells you how much STUN damage you can shake off, as well as influencing your END, EC, and ED.

   Body costs 2 character points to raise 1 point. This is the stat that tells you how much damage your physical body can take. If you're reduced to zero, you're in a bad way, and are unconscious. Your body can go into the negatives to a value equal to your body before you're toast. This stat also influences your STUN total, and is what you would roll against to deal with something like radiation.

   Intelligence costs 1 character point per point. You know what this stat is for, but in addition to boosting your int-based skills, it also increases your perception rolls. It's not the only way to boost them, though.

   Ego costs 2 character points to raise 1 point. Your ego is going to determine your E.C.V. (for campaigns with psionics or mind powers), as well as allowing you to roll to 'push' another stat at the cost of your END. (Ie., you can make an ego roll to push your strength in combat.)

   Presence costs 1 character points to raise 1 point. Your Presence is how much personal charisma you project, and how easily you make yourself noticed. This influences your social skills.

   Comeliness costs 1/2 point to raise 1 point. This is how pretty you are. Pretty straightforward.

   You can build your stats up from ten, or sell them down for more points. If you get to 20, and want to raise them, that's not a problem for heroic campaigns. Just spend your points as normal; the system scales for you. If you're a normal human and you want to go higher, the cost is doubled until you buy off your Normal Characteristic Maxima (20) disadvantage (if applicable).

   That's really it for the basic stats.

ii. Derived Stats

   Your derived, or 'figured' characteristics are a lot like the normal ones, only you don't have skills based on these. They have specific values that they get from your primary stats, or you can raise your derived stats separately.

   PD is Physical Defense. This number is your strength divided by 5, and can be raised by 1 for each character point you put into it (to a maximum of 8 points). When you take normal physical damage, you can reduce the amount of BODY and STUN you take from each attack by this value.

   ED is Energy Defense. This works exactly like PD, except it's based on your CON instead of your STR.

   Speed is how often you act. This is going to be your dex divided by 10, rounded down, plus one. It costs 10 points to raise (or enough to raise the remainder from your dex to 10). For a normal human, this is '2'. The normal human maximum for this stat is 4. This pretty much influences how often you will be able to act in a twelve second period, and is the only stat that has a cap. Your speed goes as high as 12, and that's as high as it can go. However, this will cost, at a minimum, 110 character points, and has its own drawbacks for being so fast. (See also 'III. Combat' for more information.)

   Recovery indicates how much STUN and END you recover each round, and how much BODY you recover in a week. This value is your STR plus your CON, both of which are divided by 5.

   Endurance is your END. This is how much endurance you have. When you run, you use END. When you attack, you use END. Normally, the costs are negligible, except for long combats, 'pushing', or using powers, which have END costs of their own. The value of this stat is your CON times two. Each character point you put into this stat gives you two more END.

   Stun is STUN. When your END hits zero, you start drawing off of STUN instead. If you get hit,  your END is fine, but you lose STUN. If your STUN hits zero, you're stunned. If your STUN goes below -10, you're knocked out.

   And that's it for the derived stats, but there are some other stats without skills based on them, or being derived.

   These are your movement stats, which are running, swimming, and leaping.

   By default, you can run 6" (2 point per additional inch), swim 2" (1 point per additional inch), and leap 2" (1 point per additional inch). For a normal human, these abilities max at 10", 5", and 5" respectively.

   All of these stats (except for speed) can be raised over their maximum for twice the cost, unless you're using no characteristic maxima, or the GM says otherwise.

   This may be complicated, but I suck at math, and still managed to draw up an Excel format spreadsheet that can calculate the derived stats from the primary, and can factor in extra points you use to boost the derived stats, or points you subtract to give you more points elsewhere.

   iii. Skills

   Skills come in a few different types. The majority of skills are one of two types: Base or Derived.

   A base skill is based on the idea that to make your check, you have to roll at or under your base on 3d6 to pass. For two character points, your skill is a -8 roll. For three character points, your skill roll is a -8 (+ stat/5). So, for example, if I had a Conversation skill bought at the three point level and an INT of 15, my Conversation skill roll would need to be at or under 8 (+3) to pass. This makes it an even 11, which is the average roll on 3d6.

   Both types of skills can be increased by +1 for 1 point each. Which type of skill you have is generally going to be up to either the GM saying all skills are at one level, or the GM saying its at your discretion. If you don't expect to use a skill much for the campaign, this allows you to flesh out your character a wee bit without spending a ton of points.

   The other use for Base skills is for skills which are based on rolls where no stat applies, such as skills that have been made up for a campaign. Some types of magic may require skill rolls not based on INT, for example.

   You can also get Combat skill levels. For 1 point, you have a 'familiarity' with a given weapon, which eliminates your standard penalties. For 2 points, you can get +1 O.C.V. for a single attack type (say, a dirk, or a dagger). For 3 points, you can get +1 to any three maneuvers (Martial Arts skills if you have them, including defensive skills) or a closely related group of weapons (knives, spears, handguns, curved blades, etc). For 5 points, you can get a +1 to HTH combat, ranged combat, +1 with a related group of attacks (martial arts, guns, "Any weapon used by the US military's infantry", etc.) OR a +1 to D.C.V. against all attacks. For 8 points, you get a plus one to all combat.

   But it doesn't stop there!

   You can buy General skill levels, too. For 2 points, you can get +1 to one skill or characteristic roll. This is pretty useless for skill rolls, but quite useful for characteristic rolls. This allows you to have a roll for, say, DEX, that's higher than your actual DEX value, so you can have a character who's got good balance, but without a really spectacular speed stat, or C.V.

   For 3 points, you can get a +1 with any three related skills (for example, Conversation, High Society, and Knowledge: Culture).

   For 5 points, you can get a +1 for any group of similar skills. For example, "All DEX based rolls."

   For 8 points, you can get a +1 for all non-combat skills.

   And finally, for 10 points, you can get the ultimate: an Overall Skill Level. +1 to anything, but only one thing at a time, including O.C.V. or D.C.V.

   That's just cool to me.

   BUT IT GETS BETTER!

   You can further refine your character's skills by getting skill enhancers. These all cost 3 points, and work to lower the costs of specific skill sets by one, so you can flesh our your character more easily. You want to have an egghead? Buy Scientist for a discount on all Science skills. Or try Jack of All Trades for a discount to all Profession skills. Or Scholar, for cheaper general Knowledge skills. Traveler can be great for picking up the Area Knowledge, and Cultural Knowledge skills more cheaply. Or the Linguist, for language skills. And let's not forget the advantage of being Well-Connected for cheaper Contacts and Favors.

   This, to me, says that the Hero system wants your character to have the option to be as well-developed as you're willing to make it.

iv. Powers

   What's set above is a framework for a really nice system, and one that lets you do quite a bit. But it doesn't stop there! The game also lets you have freaky powers that can do pretty much anything you can imagine. If you want it to be done, the effect is already in the book, it's just a question of how you want to go about it.

   You want an insanely strong human tank who's powers only work when he's wearing a safety helmet? It can be done. You want a traditional mage who has to memorize his spells at the start of the day before he goes out adventuring? It can be done. You want someone who can levitate and throw fireballs? That too can be done!

   There's three basic levels of powers that you can work with.

   Perks, which are social. Things like Anonymity, a Computer Link, a Contact, or Access. Money, Reputation, or a Follower.

   Then you get Talents. Things like Danger Sense. Bump of Direction. Heightened Senses. Luck.

   But you're not reading this section to find out about those.

   You want to know about the fireballs and stuff.

   There are a few basic types of powers, but they all get categorized not by what they are, but rather as what they _do_.

   Adjustment powers. You want to be a healer? You're going to pick up an adjustment power. You want to make someone else suck at combat? Same. You want to steal someone else's power? That's Adjustment, too.

   Attack powers. Like the name reads. You want to do ranged damage, HTH damage, killing damage, or only STUN damage, it's all here.

   Defense powers. Flash defense. Take a hit better. Have resistance to mind control. Put up a force field. That's part of this group.

   Mental powers. Telepathy, mind link, telekinesis, Mental Illusions, and Ego Attack. The name says it all.

   Movement powers. Teleportation. Flight. Extra dimensional movement, or swinging on vines, this section will have you covered.

   Sense affecting powers. Flash, Images, invisibility. You know what this stuff is.

   Sensory powers. Clairsentience. Enhanced senses. Find Weakness.

   Size powers. Growth or shrinking.

   Special powers. Things that don't fit neatly into the other categories. Regeneration, luck, or skills, for example.

   Standard powers. Things that fit into multiple categories.

   Each of these categories contains at least four different types of powers, which are all based on the same rules and conversion ratios. Boiled down, you're going to get 1 die of effect for every 5 character points you put into a power.

   You want a Ranged Killing Attack? 15 points for 1 die. That's three damage classes of killing damage.

   You want a Hand Attack? 5 points per 1 die. That's one damage class of normal damage.

   Aid? 5 points per 1 die.

   Mind control? Same.

   And that'll let you carve a rough idea of the power you want to build. Let's say for some reason, you want to build a power for someone that lets them rain fireballs from the heavens on their opponents.

   This is an Attack Power. Are fireballs killing or normal damage, and physical or energy? We'll say that this time, they're normal damage (so they aren't huge fireballs) and energy. So we go and pick out Energy Blast from the list. 5 points per die of damage. Well, that's not so great, because he's throwing the fireballs, and we want him to make them rain from the heavens, right?

   Here's where we work the customization of the system into overdrive, with the not-yet-mentioned system of Advantages and Limitations.

   Okay, first off, we're going to decide that a 4d6 normal damage rain of fireballs is our goal. That's 20 points as a base.

   But we want it to cover an Area of Effect (radius). Well, that's a +1 advantage. We'll put on the +1/2 additional modifier of Selective for the targeting, so we don't blow ourselves or our allies away.

   And we want it to be Indirect -- you know, from the heavens. +3/4 (.75) advantage.

   So. To determine the area of effect. We've got a range of Active Cost x5" for the EB. That works out to an active cost of (5 x 20 x ( 1+1+.5+.75)) inches. 325 inches gives incredible range, once you realize that on hex, each inch is about two meters. Now, the actual area of effect of the power is determined by the active cost not counting the AoE power. So the attack will naturally cover an area of ( 3.5 ) inches in diameter. That's a really unimpressive radius, considering the range of the power. So, we'll double it. Twice. That's an additional +1/2 advantage to AoE. Now it's got a radius of 14 inches. Respectable! This also, incidentally, raises the range of the power to 375".

   Now the cost of the rain of fireballs is 75 character points. That's also its active cost, and means that the power costs 8 END to use, but can be used as a normal action.

   We want it to be cheaper than that, so we'll look into limitations.

   Concentration. If the person using this power can't move (D.C.V. 0) when using this power, then it's a -1/2 limitation. Focus is good. Let's say that the power can only be used when holding a staff. The power's indirect, so the focus is considered to be Inobvious (unless the GM rules that everyone knows that the power only works when the character is holding the staff). Inobvious Accessible Focus is a -1/2 limitation. Gestures (one hand) is another -1/4, and Incantations is also a -1/4 limitation.

   This gives us the base cost (20) multiplied by the sum of the advantages plus one (3.75) and then divided by the sum of the limitations plus one (2.5). The power costs 30 character points.

   And now we've got a good sized rain of fireballs to throw around. Pretty much any power you can think of will fit into the basic power ideas, and the advantages and limitations will really help you refine your concept into exactly what you want.

   If you want, you can throw a really oddball power at me, and I'll show you exactly how to create it in the Hero system.

III. Combat

   Combat in the Hero system is, quite possibly, the most mathy endeavor you will encounter outside of school. The first step to a combat is to determine the order of action.

   A combat round is twelve segments (or phases) each of which is one second long.

   Check your speed stat. It determines which phases you will act on. Higher speed means more active phases. Of course, you only get a recovery on phase zero, so high speed means you can wear yourself out faster (unless you voluntarily take a recovery).

   When you make an attack, your target roll is to get an 11 or less on 3d6. You get to add your O.C.V. to your target roll, and your target gets to subtract their own D.C.V. Aside from skill levels in weapons, your O.C.V. is equal to your DEX divided by 3. Your D.C.V. is the same number. If you're skilled, you get to increase your O.C.V.

   When you take damage, it will be either 'normal', or 'killing'.

   Normal damage is the number on a d6 in STUN, and then BODY is 0 for 1, 1 for 2-5, and 2 for 6. So a single die of normal damage will do 2 BODY maximum, and the human average PD is 2. This makes sense, as 4 STUN is still applied, and that indicates that it was painful, and we'd probably rather not do it again.

   Killing damage is the number on a d6 in BODY, and that value multiplied by 1d6-1 in STUN. PD does not apply to killing damage, unless you've got Resistant PD, or armor. This makes sense, as killing damage is for keeps.

   Damage classes are 1 per die for normal damage. For killing damage, the progression is +1, 1/2 die, 1d6. So you can see that the 5 points per 1 die of effect holds true, when you take killing damage classes into account. 15 points of normal damage is 3d6, with a maximum of 6 BODY and 18 STUN. 15 points of killing damage is 1d6, with a maximum of 6 BODY and 30 STUN.

   When you take STUN, compare that amount (after defenses) to your CON. If it's more than your CON, you are dazed. If it's less, you can shake it off and keep fighting. If you go to 0 through -10 STUN, you're stunned. If you go lower, you're knocked out, and your recovery drops one ranking on the time-chart for every ten points of STUN you are below 0.

IV. Special Effects

   The coolest thing about this system by far, is that after you've waded your way through the reams of data and the piles of math it throws at you, you realize that the creators of the system don't want you to focus on the numbers of your powers. They want you to focus on the special effects.

   See the example of the power created above -- it's not an Indirect Area of Effect Energy Blast. It's a fiery rain from the heavens! The special effect of this power doesn't have system cost, or a system effect. And it probably won't have an in-game cost, but it could have tremendous in-game effect. This is fire, so you'd probably think twice about using it a grasslands environment. But at the same time, you could probably use this to great effect against ice-monsters, or since the area of effect is selective, you could make it a point a hand wide and just start a fire in a firepit.

   These advantages and limitations are up to the GM, and you don't get points for them normally.

i. Powers Again

   And this leads into more real advantages and limitations for powers. It's a rain of fireballs from the heavens, but we didn't bother to apply the 'only usable outdoors' limitation. We could, though. And we could add the advantage 'delayed effect' _and_ the limitation 'extra time'. Now the power could be usable only out-doors, and require a full five minutes to cast. But with delayed effect, the spell could be 'cast' in the morning, and simply not used until it was needed. The gestures and incantations still need to be used at the time of activation, but now the special effect is essentially your traditional D&D mage.

   It took me a while to get to it, but now that I've found the flexibility that lies deep within this system, I don't think I regret a second of the time invested in learning it.

[Dracos]

Well, going through the char build for this system with Brian, it's seemed pretty darn spiffy.  I await seeing how it plays out in practice ^_^

Dracos

[Brian]

Ye've seen it borne out (haltingly) a number of times.  Thoughts, Dracly One?

[Carthrat]

I've got some thoughts on it, at any rate. Now that I've seen several games run through this system, anyway.

On the one hand, the system manages to make itself interesting, no doubt in nature to the extremely open nature. I've been told it can compare to GURPS, but having never played that, I can't say how. What I have noticed is that people tend to have plenty of fun during character generation, or, more specifically, power generation, as they design and tinker with and work out cool new abilities. The sheer flexibility of the system allows pretty much anything to be tried.

On the other hand, this comes with a fair amount of math. This is probably the biggest stickling point of the system; it can be excellent fun, but if nobody can solve the equation of their character (or simply wade through the sheer volume of it), how are they going to enjoy themselves?

Playing the game through a spreadsheet on my part certainly helped, but that to one side, during games proper, I see the system slowing down play, rather than facilitating it. That's a very bad thing to expect from any set of rules in a roleplaying game, the rules aren't *the game*, or at least they are only in straight-out dungeon crawls, and shouldn't have the same importance as the story and description.

As a result, I've seen twice now the rules simply get canned. It's just too easy to get tangled up in what you're doing, and it just seems too much work to dig yourself out.

Work that won't be fun, to a GM, or to a player.

That's the trick. The system has plenty of potential in it's flexibility and interesting rules; but has a nasty habit of making keeping up with the details seem to be more like an accounting project than a game. :/

[Dracos]

On one hand, Rat's kind of right.

I wouldn't try running hero face to face without the types of tools that computers make readily avaliable to deal generating stats quickly and maintaining the oft large amount of notes on it.

On the other hand, I do like it.  I think it is a pretty solid system when the tools are in place to keep the math down.  I think that, barring unexpected disaster, it wouldn't have been canned.

Truthfully, if I was running one of these, I'd just institute a few simple rules of thumb to get rid of the math.  Handling things promptly removes the whole 'backtracking through accounts' bit.  Keeping a 'if in doubt, everyone matches strongest' is usually an easy way for the GM to clean up if all the paperwork gets screwy.  And besides that, everything is pretty simple to handle computerwise.

That said, I've not seen how it works in high power mode, and hopefully will with Bjorn's game since that's always an important and relevent consideration in the full scale of a system.  I think it works pretty well on the mid range though.

I don't think I'd use it for low range simply because it starts getting a little silly to try and model points.  Maybe it is intentionally pushing for stats being average, but it was far more comfortable building with more flex room and also it felt more natural to say "okay, let's put so and so in background, so and so in whatever" when those points were readily avaliable rather than squeezed out of critical areas.

Then again, I'm almost never a proponent of low ranges in games anyway.  I never did see the point in starting off struggling to take kobolds =P

Dracos

[Edward]

Then again, I'm almost never a proponent of low ranges in games anyway.  I never did see the point in starting off struggling to take kobolds =P

Dracos

At one point ads for Champions said something like "Tired of playing a first level weenie."

I've played and enjoyed Champions.  While it is more math intense to create a character, I found it pretty easy to create a spreadsheet to calculates stat costs, including secondary stats, which made life much simpler.

The system is very flexible.  This was a deliberate decision, to allow more choices, with the understanding that munchkins will try to take advantage of the flexibility.  I like the fact that some powers and talents are deliberately marked to warn the GM that they could radically affect certain scenarios or are more powerful than they appear.

Previous editions even includes examples of the travesties you could create by abusing the system, with my favorite being 'The Landlord'.

It's not as scary as it might sound from the length of Brian's explanation.

[Dracos]

It's not that scary anyways.  I've yet to see a decent system that didn't involve a fair bit of math.

Dracos

[Bjorn]

My experience is that most of the math comes during character creation.  During the game itself, the issue is not so much complexity as familiarity -- remembering which skills to roll against and the like.  To simplify this, the HERO system really keeps the number of mechanics to a minimum, so that with just a little bit of play, this sort of thing becomes second nature.

Of course, you generally have to go through the relearning process with each new character, as you use different powers and skills, but that's a small price.