I know I've bee kinda ADHD with the writing lately, I'm working on moving forward with EON and Derelict Delvers.

I decided, however, to kick out a conceptual prospectus and see what people thought and get feedback while I'm busy with those projects.

So here goes. I'm very early in the brainstorming from feedback I've received so its perfectly acceptable to say "these ideas suck.." albeit I'd like to know why they suck.

One thing I totally dig is the expanded scales.  I assume Ranks work the same way, dictating number of dice rolled?

With Raises, does that mean character advancement is being added to the game?  Or does that only apply to Framework characters?

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;361723One thing I totally dig is the expanded scales.  I assume Ranks work the same way, dictating number of dice rolled?

With Raises, does that mean character advancement is being added to the game?  Or does that only apply to Framework characters?

I'm not planning on having "advancement" in the strictest sense in the game. I'm probably going to have something tied to triggers and stress events that allow a hero to go through a pivotal moment and tinker a bit with how they work.

Quote from: Silverlion;361734I'm not planning on having "advancement" in the strictest sense in the game. I'm probably going to have something tied to triggers and stress events that allow a hero to go through a pivotal moment and tinker a bit with how they work.

Now THAT's cool...and very much in genre.  'Cause sometimes Hulk becomes smart, or Wolverine loses his adamantium skeleton, or - Heaven forbid - Spider-Man finds out he's possessed by the Spider Avatar or whatever that nonsense was.

One thing I can absolutely dig is the re-naming of Brains and Prowess. Intelligence and Knowledge are more prosaic, but also more intuitively to grok.

One thing I'm not really certain about are the expanded scales. Having just 9 levels seemed sufficient for me for the game's granularity.
I could see some reason in this if it would make it easier to reach the TN of the next-higher scale, but as it's only in one instance possible at all to reach the higher TN with the lower scale (Superhuman => Worldshaking), that doesn't apply.


Some kind of advancement (or temporary raise, as Tommy pointed out) would be a good thing, as I see one of the main flaws in H&S in the lack of long-term motivation with its mechanically static characters.


What I'd especially wish for are better explanations for Stress, more defined guidelines about which amount of Stress leads to what severity of Stress Events, and the clearly stated use of Stress to temporarily shift to a higher scale.

Quote from: Skyrock;361908What I'd especially wish for are better explanations for Stress, more defined guidelines about which amount of Stress leads to what severity of Stress Events, and the clearly stated use of Stress to temporarily shift to a higher scale.

Definitely. That's not even "prospectus material" as it is GOING to be in there, as best I can manage.

Quote from: Silverlion;361995Definitely. That's not even "prospectus material" as it is GOING to be in there, as best I can manage.

Hm.  You know, this might have been part of my issue with 1e.  I didn't "get" Stress on reading, and my biggest supers player has to be pulled, kicking and screaming, away from Marvel SAGA...so I usually pick those battles very carefully.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;361999Hm.  You know, this might have been part of my issue with 1e.  I didn't "get" Stress on reading, and my biggest supers player has to be pulled, kicking and screaming, away from Marvel SAGA...so I usually pick those battles very carefully.

Stress is pretty much the "bad stuff" that happens to you.

Marvel Saga Comparison:
It's both the Doom Card and pushing rolled into one. You simply do well unless the task is beyond your normal abilities, or is seriously opposed. That's when you have to try harder (push) to get ahead.  Only in this case it doesn't automatically result in negative consequences immediately. It can eventually (like playing Doom cards) turn bad. The "turning bad" is where stress is lost, because it becomes something beyond being weary, distracted, or other minor ongoing problem--it becomes a more severe, more lasting problem: Wounds, relationship breaks, loss of powers or gear, knock outs, and of course knockback.  The player can essentially spend the doom card FOR the GM to try and skirt the worse stuff, or if they wait to long the Gm will have a "stack" of Dooms to use. (aka Stress.)

Believe it or not I loved Marvel Saga too--and drew inspiration from it in some ways, but I also drew inspiration from how comic books worked from the times I enjoyed them the most.


MSH/DC
I loved MSH (and DC Heroes) too, but always found Karma (Hero points) to be a bit of a patch for low success numbers. I LOVED the game, but it worked best at significantly higher power levels than some GM's liked. Karma had to be spent in great amounts to do your "job" in play. That is an elegant thing but I felt it worked backwards more like a brilliant patch . Why should you spend Karma to do the job? Shouldn't Karma be spent automatically and you only suffer/things go wrong when karma is GONE?

Don't get me wrong--I still love those games, I'm a fan of superhero games. I just want the default condition to be "Struggle and Win!" not "Struggle and maybe lose, maybe win..."  Sure a stress event (setback) might be seen as a losing state (rather than a temporary barrier)  which is why I'm trying to improve that with the pivotal events rules that let you change/advance your character by willingly suffering setbacks..

Hmm...Superheroes do their best when it's all on the line.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;362777Hmm...Superheroes do their best when it's all on the line.

 I agree. However the idea with H&S has always been--will you the hero try that hard!