D&D 4E Homebrew RPG (4e based): Heroes of Legend

[invokethehojo]

This is a super-power themed game that uses 4e mechanics to make a simpler, classless, more fast paced, and easier to pick up game. No RPG is perfect, but so many of the good ones feel too limiting or too complicated or both. Heroes of Legend is my attempt to make an alternative that bridges those problems. I have taken systems, rules and abilities from many games and combined them in a way that I feel is easy to learn and use and that is also a solid system in terms of the math behind it.

The basic premise of this game comes from the movie Unbreakable, where Samuel L. Jackson’s character proposed that comic books are exaggerated tales of real people that were extraordinary. The characters in this game, for whatever reason (up to you and/or the GM) have abilities greater that normal humans, but they aren’t unlimited.

This game uses the 4e system as a base, so conditions, ability scores, traits (feats), skills and most of the under lying math are derived from it. You will need a 4e Player’s Handbook to play Heroes of Legend since a lot of terms and system elements are derived from it and fully explained therein. Most campaigns I have been in have utilized house rules, and this system was designed with that in mind (see the Game Master’s section for more details).

Like in 4e your characters are the “heroes” or main characters of the story, but unlike 4e they don’t just choose a power-tree to follow, instead they are capable of improving in many directions simultaneously. You create your character from scratch, then build them however you want them, and they can exist in any setting, world or time line.

If you have any feedback please let me know here or at nerdoflegend@yahoo.com. I haven't been able to get a group together to play test it yet, but several longtime gamers I know gave it an OK and I've made several characters and things seem to balance well.

I have attached the basic rules (version 1.6 now), a (very) rough character sheet, a quick reference page, two enemy sheets and a combat tracker page.

 

[invokethehojo]

After looking around the fan creation threads it looks like I'm not the only one to try something like this, a super-hero type off shoot of 4e. So to save you some time Heroes of Legend is similar to 4e but simpler. The game is also easy to modify, so making house rules (or incorporating old rules like disarming or tripping) should be easy.

Also, utilizing some of the included house rules examples, HoL could easily be simple enough that kids could pick it up fairly quickly (In fact I wrote this with the premise of starting my kids into RPG’s with it). Or maybe this could be a good stepping stone to teach new players the 4e mechanics without getting them bogged down in all the detailed powers, magic items and condition tracking of 4e.

If you like 4e and don't find it overly complicated then this might not be for you, but give it a read, maybe you'll get some good ideas out of it.

 

[invokethehojo]

Hey guys I only got 2 hands and one keyboard here, don't all reply at once!

 

[caml37]

Pros
- I like the no AC part. I think that the SWSE use of reflex as AC is wonderful.
- Cover/Concealment changes are good.
- RAM to hit/damage is good.
- I love supers. I don't truly think that the encounter/daily part of 4e lends itself well to a genre where the daily power of a character is the characters whole idea, but, so be it


Cons
- Initiative bonuses for order takes some of the fun out of it.
- Energy resistance is underpowered. Energy Aura might be underpowered, too, IMO.
- Various powers ranges are too short. The superheroes in the world that max most of these at every single turn would only have about 200 ft range... powers included: ESP, Sense Ability, Telepathy, Teleport, etc.
What I find sort of funny is that Bonded weapon is level in miles
- Regeneration should also get an additional healing surge, IMO.

Mixed
- I think that no opportunity attacks will make the game go faster, though it does suspend reality a bit at times and make casters much faster... What about making certain things that SHOULD provoke an opportunity to attack have that in their descriptions specifically?
- Second Wind as a move is alright. I think the bonus to defenses as a move is a bit overpowered, and a few people already have the ability to do it faster. i'm torn on this one.
- A Flat XP advancement is a bit weird for most people. It shoudl generally take longer to hit higher power levels as the gaps between then in power get bigger...
- Action points refreshing at every encounter is good. Getting another action point at every level is unbalanced if both are used. That means that a level 10 person (who only needs the 10 XP to get to level 11) can use 10 action points per encounter, of which there might be many, and it only gets more out of hand as the levels go on... What about every other level? Or what about a power that lets you get additional action points?

Good job on the writeup. I look forward to seeing any additions/changes that you make.

 

[invokethehojo]

Thanks Caml37, I'm busy with holiday stuff so I'll get you a full reply when I get some time, hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

 

[invokethehojo]

Ok, I did version 1.2 and made a few changes based on some observations and caml's advice (thanks caml). I have updated my answers to his questions, and edited them to reflect changes in version 1.2.


I love supers. I don't truly think that the encounter/daily part of 4e lends itself well to a genre where the daily power of a character is the characters whole idea, but, so be it.
+ I put those restrictions there to make sure characters weren’t too powerful and to keep in an element of strategy. But one thing I like about using a simple system like this is that as long as you change things across the board the game stays equal. So if you want teleport to be at will then go for it, just make sure it's like that for everyone.

Energy Aura might be underpowered IMO.
+ I don't know, a play test may tell. It does lower damage than other powers, but can hit multiple targets, and with extras can either expand to burst 2 (which i think is pretty powerful) or can put conditions on multiple targets... again, a playtest would help here.

- Various powers ranges are too short. The superheroes in the world that max most of these at every single turn would only have about 200 ft range... powers included: ESP, Sense Ability, Telepathy, Teleport, etc.
+I used those ranges because they fit within a standard battle mat and they were close to 4e weapon ranges, but again, house rule it however you want.

- Regeneration should also get an additional healing surge, IMO.
+ I can see your point but when would you aquire that healing surge? I want to be careful to not create powers that everyone wants to take 1 rank in because it is so obviously beneficial (see d20 Modern and the Fast characters defense bonus).

- Second Wind as a move is alright. I think the bonus to defenses as a move is a bit overpowered, and a few people already have the ability to do it faster. i'm torn on this one.
+I did this purely because when playing 4e I would constantly here players say "I need to use my second wind, but I'm not going to because I don't want to sit there for a round doing nothing."

- A Flat XP advancement is a bit weird for most people. It should generally take longer to hit higher power levels as the gaps between then in power get bigger...
+Your probably right on this one, but I did this on my own in my free time so I decided not to go crazy on details and mostly just try to get it finished. I welcome ideas.

- Action points refreshing at every encounter is good. Getting another action point at every level is unbalanced if both are used. That means that a level 10 person can use 10 action points per encounter, of which there might be many. What about every other level? Or what about a power that lets you get additional action points?
+I’m thinking of players using AP's to use extras, which at 10th level means they can do 10 unique attacks or moves, which feels right for a high level character. However, players might use them in ways I haven't fully thought of. A playtest would help to clarify, may 1 per level is too much.

I'm close to getting a group at my local nerd store to play test Heroes of Legend, then I can see how some of these rules work and what is good/bad about them.

Thank you for the constructive feedback.

I didnt track all the changes (sorry) but most of them revolved around house rules. I made shifting and opportunity attacks the norm and put my alternate in as a house rule.

 

[invokethehojo]

I'd also like to mention something, the leveling system in HoL is a little different. It doesn't have any nuances really, but I think it makes up for that in that players can us XP to gain new abilities very frequently. If you break it down 10 XP to get to each new level, and 1 XP per encounter a campaign goes like this...
Average of 2 encounters per play session= 50 sessions to max out XP*
Average of 3 encounters per play session= 34 sessions to max out XP*
Average of 4 encounters per play session= 25 sessions to max out XP*
(* assuming you start at 1st level)
Some people might find this too short (In 4e I think the general estimate is 75 sessions to reach 30th level with 4 encounters per session on average) but I find that my players don't want to stick with characters forever, they like trying new and different things. In fact, I have a hard time getting players to stick with one campaign or character for longer than 5 or 6 sessions. If this isn't the case for you, or you simply don't like the leveling system, feel free to house rule things and make them different however you see fit. Over the years we mostly just had the house rule of leveling up every other game session.

 

[scarik]

Looks like a good D&D lite.

I disagree on a few points with my own Supers ambitions, namely I love At-Will/Encouter/Daily (reskinned as Page/Chapter/Issue or something similar, cant decide on the terms).

it clearly makes it so heros in the RPG act like heroes on the page, they don't just go in and blow their dailies constantly, they have to use their At-Wills for most attacks.

I also like Reflex because I don't want to fiddle with Resistance to simulate sloe bricks who resist normal weapons but don't often negate Reflex attacks totally.

 

[Wraith Form]

While I haven't had a chance to peruse this yet, just wanted to say Thank You for sharing this!

 

[invokethehojo]

Thank you guys for giving me input

I just posted another revision, version 1.4

Basically added a paragraph in the introduction that explained my outlook a little more. I moved the Delay and Ready action changes to the house rule section, and I also added several more example house rules.