Special Effects in Action
I have a deep and abiding fondness for the HERO system. It’s mathematically complex and not always elegant, but its core idea is one of the best ideas in roleplaying games, in my opinion.
That idea is this: In HERO, you pay character points for the game-mechanical effect your character can achieve. You then decide what form that mechanical effect takes within the game world. The HERO rulebooks call this the “special effect”.
For instance, you might buy ten dice of Energy Blast for 50 character points. You decide that this represents your hero’s ability to shoot lightning from his hands. Your friend’s character’s 50-point Energy Blast might represent a thrown ball of fire. Another character’s represents a Thor-style thrown hammer attack. (Despite the name, Energy Blast doesn’t have to be energy. It can be physical for no extra cost.) Another is a bolt of raw force. Another is a bad luck power, representing damage the target “does to himself” through some misfortune.
Categories: Advice, Philosophy and Rants | Comments (2)
Things About 4e I Learned from the RPGA
As I touched on in an earlier post, I had the opportunity to play in three RPGA games at Gencon. Three different groups of players, three different GMs, three sessions in a style completely different from my norm.
These are some of the observations I took away from those sessions.
Categories: Philosophy and Rants | Comments (2)
My Dwarves are Roman
Well, actually, they’re not. They’re more like a Greek-Roman hybrid.
The stereotypical dwarves these days are vaguely Scottish; prior to that, Germanic-flavored dwarves were in vogue. But mine are inspired by ancient Greece and Rome.
I bring this up because of a recent post at Unclebear regarding the “vanilla”-ness of D&D settings. I disagreed with Berin’s implication that the restrictions on worldbuilding were intrinsic to the D&D system — I believe that such limitations are intrinsic to any system that goes beyond pure storytelling. Systems are made up of assumptions. Some, like the HERO system, make those assumptions primarily in the mechanics; without such assumptions, it’s impossible to model anything. Most assume more about the setting.
Categories: My Campaigns, Philosophy and Rants | Comments (10)
Alignment Explained via Superheroes
These motivational posters are surprisingly apt. I like the conceit here: the superheroes (and villains) are, for the most part, pretty well-known figures, which makes this an easy encapsulation of the D&D alignment system. The one prior to fourth-edition, at any rate.
My favorite part is the quote chosen for each one. He’s a superhero; he’s a political philosopher. They Fight Crime.
It’s kind of an old post, but I just stumbled upon a link to it.
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Myth Direction: The Great Con
In my last post, I mentioned The Lies of Locke Lamora, a novel dealing, in part, with a series of elaborate cons pulled by a master thief. Con artistry is a device that shows up in many stories; whether it’s tales of Coyote or Robin Hood or films about Bugs Bunny or Ocean’s Eleven, the Trickster is an archetypal figure, and one of his greatest tricks is to pretend, for an extended period, to be someone or something he’s not.
So, how does this translate to the game?
In fourth edition, the most obvious answer is to structure the con as a skill challenge. This works well for smaller cons, which can be completed as a single encounter. But if you wanted to run a more intricate and convoluted con, a single encounter just won’t do. The players might need to meet key NPCs multiple times, perhaps over days or weeks; they might need to perform investigation or thievery in between; they might need to arrange distractions; they might need any number of other things.
Categories: Advice, Myth Direction | Comments (0)
