Superhero RPG

[Fedifensor]

Hero System 5th Edition Revised, Character Abilities Guidelines Table on page 28, Standard Superhero subset clearly lists the suggested guidelines. These guidelines are what the over 30 books in the Champions series seem to follow.

And yet, it specifically says on the cover of that rulebook that it is a gamer's toolkit. It's like saying that a master chef has to exactly duplicate the turkey dinner in your freezer. Yes, it's easier to grab prefab material, but most experienced gamemasters (in any game system) go beyond pregenerated material to use the full power of a game system.

The purpose of this thread was to give information about superhero games. If someone were to pick up the 5E Champions book those are the guidelines they would see displayed. They can certainly go against the suggestions and use whatever guidelines they wish in their Champions game, just as you can in any superhero game, but the 5E guidelines are what's presented to the gaming public. It's no one's but Hero Games' fault that the 5E power level guidelines don't match the 4E and earlier examples.

It's the prefered game style of Steve Long, apparently...and it does make for shorter fights. So blame it on him if you want.

Here's my take on things. If you want a superhero game that's easy to set up, and does a decent job of portraying the genre, go with M&M. But if you're at a convention and see a game of Champions (HERO) running, give it a try. In a convention setting, the person preparing the game has done all the prep work, and you'll really get to see HERO shine. I would go back to my earlier analogy of microwave food versus something made by a master chef - the former is quick and will fill you up, but the latter tastes better if you have the time for it.

 

[Malacoda]

I would go back to my earlier analogy of microwave food versus something made by a master chef - the former is quick and will fill you up, but the latter tastes better if you have the time for it.

In my opinion that is not a good analogy. It links intricacy with quality.

My experience with Hero is certainly less extensive than M&M2e, but when it comes to superhero gaming I do not equate Hero’s detail and intricacy with better game play. Some do, of course, and that’s cool; I am not trying to crap on Hero. But I think the above analogy isn’t going to be useful for most people, and is actually misleading.

 

[Mallus]

I would go back to my earlier analogy of microwave food versus something made by a master chef - the former is quick and will fill you up, but the latter tastes better if you have the time for it.

Let me take a cranky pre-morning-coffee swing at your analogy.

It's bad. Because rules are more like the kitchen implements that the master chef uses when cooking the meal, not the resulting dishes.

The rules aren't the game, they're a set of tools used when playing it. And most people I know think M&M 2e is a much simpler toolkit.

 

[takyris]

This may be well after the fact, but I ran my wife through a warm-up scenario a few days ago in preparation for an upcoming game. The write up (with both in-character and out-of-character notes) is here at my blog:

http://pats-quinade.livejournal.com/51878.html

Short version: minions are almost always gonna be trivial, but unless you're a brick, a few bad rolls can still get you into trouble with anyone. Hero Points alleviate that by letting you not-get-whomped in trivial fights by one bad roll, but the Hero Points need to come quickly and often.

My wife's hero was PL10, and Agony was PL8 (and rolled insanely well on his Toughness saves). The four thugs were PL2.