Chargen outline for 6th edition Basic Rules
Jul 6, 2014 18:05:26 GMT -8
Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2014 18:05:26 GMT -8
This is for me as much as those new to HERO. I'm hoping those who see this will correct me where I'm wrong and offer suggestions on other ways to tweak this character to help show the flexibility of the system and how it can give shape to a creative idea.
HERO System, 6th edition Basic Rules. Here is a character sheet for a Fantasy one-shot I plan on running for my non-HERO group. While the one-shot will be run in my homebrew setting, this particular character is generic so as not to bog down this post (more than the thoroughness of the rules already do).
Character’s in HERO are point-buy and come in three broad categories: “normal”, “heroic”, and “super-heroic”. In this run-through I’ll be building the character on the high end of normal at 100 points, and then at the end I’ll plot out a few things to add as he gains XP.
1. Name: Darius Tannerson of Stonehill
2. Concept: Ex-Soldier turned Swordsman of the King’s Guard
3. Appearance: While of a common height and weight, Darius is well-muscled with broad shoulders and an athletic quality. Bald headed with a sun-darkened leathery complexion, he appears to be much older than his thirty-six years would suggest though his grey-eyed wary gaze lends him a stern and somewhat threatening demeanor. Generally adorned in the King’s colors of blue and black, with fine polished boots and high crowned helm, it is his shabby leather scabbard which sheathes his heirloom sword that stands out.
4. Attitude/Motivations: Having been born into a poor but proud family of “kings-men”, Darius pursued a martial life from an early age. Though he has a pleasant and jovial nature when among friends and comrades, he is generally a man of few words preferring to let his actions speak to his quality. While his oaths to the King bind him legally, it is his family honor and heritage that drives him to bear the virtues of a man of noble and just deeds.
5. Complications: Although I’m tinkering with some changes to how I want to use this feature in my own games, I will present them here as they are in the HERO system rules. Every HERO character is required to have an allotment of points in Complications to provide plot hooks and such for the GM. According to the rules a 175 point character needs 50 points worth of Complications; a 400 point character needs 75. Considering those numbers a 100 point character would have between 25 to 30 points in Complications; I’ll leave that as a loose range. Since Darius is a member of the King’s Guard, I’ll give him “Subject to the Word of the King” (Social Complication) that affects him in frequent situations and of which might require him to pay the ultimate price. His Code of Conduct is worth 20 points.
I figure Darius is a get-things-done kind of guy and probably made at least one rival throughout his career; a professional Rival is worth 5 points and gives the GM a great opportunity to antagonize Darius without necessarily threatening his life. Also, if the rival is another PC it adds another +5 to the worth of this Complication.
Since HERO is a point-buy system, I generally key in on what the character’s shtick is and buy those things first. I picture Darius as a good swordsman and all-around athlete type so I’ll jump past the Characteristics for a moment and buy up some skills.
In HERO, beginning characters get an allotment of skills that are suited to the setting in which the PC’s will be playing. The GM and/or group can custom fit this group of skills, but in this instance I’m just using the generic example from the book. Everyman skills are ones that everyone knows to some extent at the lowest degree of proficiency; a roll of 8 or less on 3d6. Increasing everyman skills costs the full price of the skill.
6. Everyman Skills
a. Acting
b. Climbing
c. Concealment
d. Conversation (a skill I can’t imagine not just rping out, but I’ll jot it down since it’s free)
e. Deduction (aha)
f. 1 Area Knowledge (I’ll make this his home town of Stonehill)
g. 1 Language Fluency (can speak his native language, but can’t read or write)
h. Paramedics (I could change that to First Aid, Survival Healing, or whatever. However, to be a contrarian I’ll plead with the GM to replace this skill with the same degree of proficiency in the Riding skill and I will, of course as the GM, agree to that sensible logic).
i. Persuasion
j. Shadowing
k. Stealth
l. 1 point Transport Familiarity (since I got my way with the Riding skill above, the GM says I have to make his TF skill a horse; fair enough)
7. Selections from the Skills section:
a. Climbing 3 points (even though this is an everyman skill, I want to bump it up to a “purchased” skill. This ties the skill to his Dexterity Characteristic meaning that on a roll of 9+ (DEX/5) or less on 3d6 results in a success…all else being equal.)
b. Combat Skill Levels: two stacked 3-point CSL with Swords (this will give Darius a +2 to his attack or defense roll or +1 to each, he can change this allotment each phase he has an action)
c. CSL: 3-points with up to three HTH maneuvers (this will give him a +1 to either attack or defense for these particular maneuvers: Martial Block, Martial Strike, and Offensive Strike) Both b and c work together to give Darius up to +3 to attack or defend so long as he is using a sword and utilizing one of those maneuvers.
d. Language Skill: spend 1 point to add literacy to his native language.
e. Martial Maneuvers: 14 points for Martial Block (4 points), Martial Strike (4 points), and Offensive Strike (5 points); either bare-handed or with a Sword (1 point Weapon Element: Sword)
f. Professional Skill, Soldiering at 2 points giving Darius a target number of 11 or less on 3d6 to perform general non-combat soldier-like duties; a kind of catch-all lifestyle roll that I decided to shoe-horn in at the last minute.
g. Survival 1 point; just the basics he picked up being poor and on campaign during his soldiering days. Buying a skill for 1 point means Darius has a competency of 8 or less on 3d6.
h. Tactics 1 point
i. Weapon Familiarity: 2 points, Common Melee Weapons
In the HERO system there are three general categories of characteristics: base attributes, combat ability, and damage/defense capacity. All Characteristics begin at a certain value to which you spend build points to increase or get points back if decreased. As a rule a Characteristic cannot be lowered to zero or less.
8. Darius’s Characteristics:
a. Strength: Darius is strong and athletic so I’ll set this at 14 for 4 points.
b. Dexterity: He is also quick and agile, 13 for 6 points.
c. Constitution: He has been a hardy workhorse his whole life, 15 for 5 points.
d. Intelligence: About average, I’ll leave INT at 10.
e. Ego: A heritage of military discipline and strong-willed men, 13 for 3 points.
f. Presence: An accomplished soldier and leader, 14 for 4 points.
g. OCV (offensive combat value): Good but with much to learn, 4 for 5 points.
h. DCV (defensive cv): On guard and watchful, 4 for 5 points.
i. OMCV (offensive mental cv): Since Darius is a swordsman and not a spell caster I’ll sell down his OMCV to 1 giving me 6 extra points to spend elsewhere. This also means he’ll have little chance of using mind magic but that’s no big deal for this character.
j. DMCV (you get the idea): Darius is pretty average when it comes to his ability to resist mind magic but he did spend many years as a soldier and might be inclined to instinctively follow commands so I’ll drop this to a value of 2 which gives me 3 extra points to spend.
k. Speed: Combat is 1 turn = 12 segments (1 segment is 1 second) with each value of SPD determining the segment during which a character gets to take an action. Each segment a character acts on is called his/her Phase. Darius is a little above average when it comes to the process of thinking about an action and executing it so I’ll bump his Speed up to 3 for 10 points. That means Darius may act 3 times during each 12 Segment Turn, his Phases are 4, 8, and 12.
l. PD (physical defense): Darius is in his prime with a physically active lifestyle, his ability to resist damage from punches, kicks, wooden clubs, blackjacks, etc is probably better than average, I’ll increase it to 4 for 2 points.
m. ED (energy): Pretty average ability to resist a lightning strike or being pushed into a fire, I’ll leave this at 2.
n. Recovery: His ability to recover his endurance and from being stunned is probably better than average; I’ll increase REC to 6 for 2 points.
o. Endurance: Darius is in much better shape than most people his age; I’ll increase his END to 30 for 2 points.
p. Body: Darius is tough as nails so I’ll increase his ability to take damage to 20 for 10 points. Incidentally, if the Characteristic Maxima rule is used, 20 Body is the max; each value increase beyond 20 would cost double the points.
q. Stun: Even though he’s hardy, Darius is probably not any harder to knock out or stun than they average guy so I’ll leave this at 20. Darius will probably curse me later for not putting at least a couple of points here, but oh well.
9. Running, Swimming, and Leaping: Since Darius is johnny all-star I’ll increase his running to 14m and his leaping to 6m for a total cost of 3 points. His swimming will stay at 4m.
10. Perks: A Contact in the king’s army is willing to lend an occasional hand; this will cost 2 points.
11. Talents: No Talents seem to fit this character or are too expensive right now, so I’ll skip this section.
12. Powers: None for this character.
13. Gear Up: It is suggested that in non-superhero games equipment can just be purchased with setting currency rather than character points. However, it also suggests that equipment that is “part” of the character be purchased with points. Most of Darius’s gear is pretty standard, but he does have an heirloom sword passed down in his family. Being just a regular sword but of great quality that has acquired sentimental value, when purchased with points it becomes a part of the setting and story of the game. Flipping to the Weapons section in the Basic Rule Book I see Broadsword: 1d6+1 damage, minimum strength requirement of 12, and it’s an M (medium) weapon. It lists the A/R Cost as 32/13. The Active Cost is the cost of a power (in this case represented as a sword) before Limitations are placed on it. I’ll only have to pay the R (Real Cost) of 13 points for Darius’s Heirloom Sword.
As you can see, the HERO system builds a pretty well-examined character with definitive skills and abilities. It’s no joke making a character and it can take a fair amount of time and tweaking to get just the character you want within the points allowed. The HERO system is obviously not for everybody and definitely rewards players who tackle character building with a well thought out idea beforehand. Hopefully this didn’t scare the HERO curious away but my goal was to present the character build process in an outlined format with (hopefully) clear wording so people could “look under the hood” a bit without getting too dirty. Last but not least:
14. Spending XP: Looking at the distribution of points, Darius is almost singularly focused on being good at fighting, with some 80+ points out of 100 being spent to improve his combat prowess. Continuing to specialize will increase his effectiveness at the expense of being a more rounded and enjoyable character to play. Being a member of the King’s Guard might suggest more skill building in the social/interaction based skills like Bureaucratics, Charm or High Society. Perhaps increasing his Knowledge skills so he may pursue a career in the King’s Government. However, sticking with his strengths, Darius could pursue more skill levels in Tactics, focus on his Profession, and increase his Presence Characteristic to become a valiant and charismatic leader as an oath-bound knight of the realm. Oh so many choices, that’s HERO.
HERO System, 6th edition Basic Rules. Here is a character sheet for a Fantasy one-shot I plan on running for my non-HERO group. While the one-shot will be run in my homebrew setting, this particular character is generic so as not to bog down this post (more than the thoroughness of the rules already do).
Character’s in HERO are point-buy and come in three broad categories: “normal”, “heroic”, and “super-heroic”. In this run-through I’ll be building the character on the high end of normal at 100 points, and then at the end I’ll plot out a few things to add as he gains XP.
1. Name: Darius Tannerson of Stonehill
2. Concept: Ex-Soldier turned Swordsman of the King’s Guard
3. Appearance: While of a common height and weight, Darius is well-muscled with broad shoulders and an athletic quality. Bald headed with a sun-darkened leathery complexion, he appears to be much older than his thirty-six years would suggest though his grey-eyed wary gaze lends him a stern and somewhat threatening demeanor. Generally adorned in the King’s colors of blue and black, with fine polished boots and high crowned helm, it is his shabby leather scabbard which sheathes his heirloom sword that stands out.
4. Attitude/Motivations: Having been born into a poor but proud family of “kings-men”, Darius pursued a martial life from an early age. Though he has a pleasant and jovial nature when among friends and comrades, he is generally a man of few words preferring to let his actions speak to his quality. While his oaths to the King bind him legally, it is his family honor and heritage that drives him to bear the virtues of a man of noble and just deeds.
5. Complications: Although I’m tinkering with some changes to how I want to use this feature in my own games, I will present them here as they are in the HERO system rules. Every HERO character is required to have an allotment of points in Complications to provide plot hooks and such for the GM. According to the rules a 175 point character needs 50 points worth of Complications; a 400 point character needs 75. Considering those numbers a 100 point character would have between 25 to 30 points in Complications; I’ll leave that as a loose range. Since Darius is a member of the King’s Guard, I’ll give him “Subject to the Word of the King” (Social Complication) that affects him in frequent situations and of which might require him to pay the ultimate price. His Code of Conduct is worth 20 points.
I figure Darius is a get-things-done kind of guy and probably made at least one rival throughout his career; a professional Rival is worth 5 points and gives the GM a great opportunity to antagonize Darius without necessarily threatening his life. Also, if the rival is another PC it adds another +5 to the worth of this Complication.
Since HERO is a point-buy system, I generally key in on what the character’s shtick is and buy those things first. I picture Darius as a good swordsman and all-around athlete type so I’ll jump past the Characteristics for a moment and buy up some skills.
In HERO, beginning characters get an allotment of skills that are suited to the setting in which the PC’s will be playing. The GM and/or group can custom fit this group of skills, but in this instance I’m just using the generic example from the book. Everyman skills are ones that everyone knows to some extent at the lowest degree of proficiency; a roll of 8 or less on 3d6. Increasing everyman skills costs the full price of the skill.
6. Everyman Skills
a. Acting
b. Climbing
c. Concealment
d. Conversation (a skill I can’t imagine not just rping out, but I’ll jot it down since it’s free)
e. Deduction (aha)
f. 1 Area Knowledge (I’ll make this his home town of Stonehill)
g. 1 Language Fluency (can speak his native language, but can’t read or write)
h. Paramedics (I could change that to First Aid, Survival Healing, or whatever. However, to be a contrarian I’ll plead with the GM to replace this skill with the same degree of proficiency in the Riding skill and I will, of course as the GM, agree to that sensible logic).
i. Persuasion
j. Shadowing
k. Stealth
l. 1 point Transport Familiarity (since I got my way with the Riding skill above, the GM says I have to make his TF skill a horse; fair enough)
7. Selections from the Skills section:
a. Climbing 3 points (even though this is an everyman skill, I want to bump it up to a “purchased” skill. This ties the skill to his Dexterity Characteristic meaning that on a roll of 9+ (DEX/5) or less on 3d6 results in a success…all else being equal.)
b. Combat Skill Levels: two stacked 3-point CSL with Swords (this will give Darius a +2 to his attack or defense roll or +1 to each, he can change this allotment each phase he has an action)
c. CSL: 3-points with up to three HTH maneuvers (this will give him a +1 to either attack or defense for these particular maneuvers: Martial Block, Martial Strike, and Offensive Strike) Both b and c work together to give Darius up to +3 to attack or defend so long as he is using a sword and utilizing one of those maneuvers.
d. Language Skill: spend 1 point to add literacy to his native language.
e. Martial Maneuvers: 14 points for Martial Block (4 points), Martial Strike (4 points), and Offensive Strike (5 points); either bare-handed or with a Sword (1 point Weapon Element: Sword)
f. Professional Skill, Soldiering at 2 points giving Darius a target number of 11 or less on 3d6 to perform general non-combat soldier-like duties; a kind of catch-all lifestyle roll that I decided to shoe-horn in at the last minute.
g. Survival 1 point; just the basics he picked up being poor and on campaign during his soldiering days. Buying a skill for 1 point means Darius has a competency of 8 or less on 3d6.
h. Tactics 1 point
i. Weapon Familiarity: 2 points, Common Melee Weapons
In the HERO system there are three general categories of characteristics: base attributes, combat ability, and damage/defense capacity. All Characteristics begin at a certain value to which you spend build points to increase or get points back if decreased. As a rule a Characteristic cannot be lowered to zero or less.
8. Darius’s Characteristics:
a. Strength: Darius is strong and athletic so I’ll set this at 14 for 4 points.
b. Dexterity: He is also quick and agile, 13 for 6 points.
c. Constitution: He has been a hardy workhorse his whole life, 15 for 5 points.
d. Intelligence: About average, I’ll leave INT at 10.
e. Ego: A heritage of military discipline and strong-willed men, 13 for 3 points.
f. Presence: An accomplished soldier and leader, 14 for 4 points.
g. OCV (offensive combat value): Good but with much to learn, 4 for 5 points.
h. DCV (defensive cv): On guard and watchful, 4 for 5 points.
i. OMCV (offensive mental cv): Since Darius is a swordsman and not a spell caster I’ll sell down his OMCV to 1 giving me 6 extra points to spend elsewhere. This also means he’ll have little chance of using mind magic but that’s no big deal for this character.
j. DMCV (you get the idea): Darius is pretty average when it comes to his ability to resist mind magic but he did spend many years as a soldier and might be inclined to instinctively follow commands so I’ll drop this to a value of 2 which gives me 3 extra points to spend.
k. Speed: Combat is 1 turn = 12 segments (1 segment is 1 second) with each value of SPD determining the segment during which a character gets to take an action. Each segment a character acts on is called his/her Phase. Darius is a little above average when it comes to the process of thinking about an action and executing it so I’ll bump his Speed up to 3 for 10 points. That means Darius may act 3 times during each 12 Segment Turn, his Phases are 4, 8, and 12.
l. PD (physical defense): Darius is in his prime with a physically active lifestyle, his ability to resist damage from punches, kicks, wooden clubs, blackjacks, etc is probably better than average, I’ll increase it to 4 for 2 points.
m. ED (energy): Pretty average ability to resist a lightning strike or being pushed into a fire, I’ll leave this at 2.
n. Recovery: His ability to recover his endurance and from being stunned is probably better than average; I’ll increase REC to 6 for 2 points.
o. Endurance: Darius is in much better shape than most people his age; I’ll increase his END to 30 for 2 points.
p. Body: Darius is tough as nails so I’ll increase his ability to take damage to 20 for 10 points. Incidentally, if the Characteristic Maxima rule is used, 20 Body is the max; each value increase beyond 20 would cost double the points.
q. Stun: Even though he’s hardy, Darius is probably not any harder to knock out or stun than they average guy so I’ll leave this at 20. Darius will probably curse me later for not putting at least a couple of points here, but oh well.
9. Running, Swimming, and Leaping: Since Darius is johnny all-star I’ll increase his running to 14m and his leaping to 6m for a total cost of 3 points. His swimming will stay at 4m.
10. Perks: A Contact in the king’s army is willing to lend an occasional hand; this will cost 2 points.
11. Talents: No Talents seem to fit this character or are too expensive right now, so I’ll skip this section.
12. Powers: None for this character.
13. Gear Up: It is suggested that in non-superhero games equipment can just be purchased with setting currency rather than character points. However, it also suggests that equipment that is “part” of the character be purchased with points. Most of Darius’s gear is pretty standard, but he does have an heirloom sword passed down in his family. Being just a regular sword but of great quality that has acquired sentimental value, when purchased with points it becomes a part of the setting and story of the game. Flipping to the Weapons section in the Basic Rule Book I see Broadsword: 1d6+1 damage, minimum strength requirement of 12, and it’s an M (medium) weapon. It lists the A/R Cost as 32/13. The Active Cost is the cost of a power (in this case represented as a sword) before Limitations are placed on it. I’ll only have to pay the R (Real Cost) of 13 points for Darius’s Heirloom Sword.
As you can see, the HERO system builds a pretty well-examined character with definitive skills and abilities. It’s no joke making a character and it can take a fair amount of time and tweaking to get just the character you want within the points allowed. The HERO system is obviously not for everybody and definitely rewards players who tackle character building with a well thought out idea beforehand. Hopefully this didn’t scare the HERO curious away but my goal was to present the character build process in an outlined format with (hopefully) clear wording so people could “look under the hood” a bit without getting too dirty. Last but not least:
14. Spending XP: Looking at the distribution of points, Darius is almost singularly focused on being good at fighting, with some 80+ points out of 100 being spent to improve his combat prowess. Continuing to specialize will increase his effectiveness at the expense of being a more rounded and enjoyable character to play. Being a member of the King’s Guard might suggest more skill building in the social/interaction based skills like Bureaucratics, Charm or High Society. Perhaps increasing his Knowledge skills so he may pursue a career in the King’s Government. However, sticking with his strengths, Darius could pursue more skill levels in Tactics, focus on his Profession, and increase his Presence Characteristic to become a valiant and charismatic leader as an oath-bound knight of the realm. Oh so many choices, that’s HERO.