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NineOfSpades
2016-04-08, 10:25 AM
Welcome to Hero's and Havoc, a tabletop RPG rule set designed to enable cinematic and narrative based game play in a super-hero setting. This system was built to provide a mechanical framework onto which players and their GM could build storylines, without the need to fumble about with unnecessarily complex rule systems. I wanted a game system where everyone could feel powerful and important to the story, without needing to devote themselves to creating that 'perfect' hero and exploiting the game-mechanics just to remain competitive. Hero's and Havoc was born from that desire, and is a flexible and adaptable rule-set which works to ensure that everyone can participate in shaping the games story.




In the Heros And Havoc System, characters actions are controlled by dice rolls. When taking action, players roll a number of d6's as determined by their dice pools. Each dice pool is rolled desperately, but they are taken collectively to determine success or failure. Success are counted as rolls of 1, 2 or 3. The total number of successes from all of the player-rolled dice pools are added together, and then compared to the Difficulty of the task being attempted. The GM then declares in the action was successful or not.

Havoc Hero's is a narrative based game, and the focus of play should be on story-telling, rather than on character mechanics. Because dice rolls can have potentially long lasting consequences above and beyond the situation at hand, GMs should only require the players to roll dice in situations where the outcome of the roll is important to the story. Most actions should be completed through storytelling, rather than through dice rolls. A good check for whether or not a given situation merits a roll is "If the characters fail here, would it change the course of the story in a way that is interesting?" If the answer to that question is no, than there is usually no reason to roll to determine the outcome.

Havoc Hero's places a great degree of control in players hands, as they are partially in charge of shaping the narrative. When a player rolls dice, they get to describe how their hero leaps into action and sends the bad guy flying. The GM remains the final arbiter, but so long as the players descriptions of events align with the outcome of the rolls and the dice pools, the players should be given a large amount of freedom to shape their own stories. On the player side, this also means using this freedom responsibly.



Characters have access to a pool of d6's that they use to take actions. These pools are divided up into sections, which have different uses and impact the flow of the game in different ways.

-Control: Dice which reflect your Willpower, Resolve, and ability to stay calm under pressure. These dice allow you to better control the course of your own life and the outcome of your choices. All Characters start with 3 Control Dice, and roll their maximum every time they take action.

-Power: Your a super hero, and you better believe that comes with super powers. These dice show just how much Super there is in your Super-Strength, how strong your psychic blast is, or whether your Pyrokinesis can burn hot enough to stop the dastardly villains freeze ray before it hits the innocent bystanders. Players can roll up to 6 Power Dice, or not roll any at all if they so chose. Just be warned, the more power you bring into battle, the quicker things can get out of hand.

-Vigor: Even the mightiest of mortals are still...you know...mortal. They get tired, physically and mentally. Vigor reflects your ability to push on through the pain, to go that extra mile or pull out a brainstorm when you need to solve Dr. Quizzlers Riddle Of Doom. You may roll up to 5 Vigor Dice, but must always roll at least 1.

There is a 4th type of Dice pool, but it belongs to the GM.

-STRIFE: These dice are used for whatever challenges our Hero's are facing, be it some terrible villain, an onrushing stamped, Hurricane disasters, or a suspicious coworker who's been asking why your character never seem to be around whenever Captain Victory arrives to save the day. Every Threat faced by our hero's has a different number of Strife Dice that they roll, which usually sets the difficulty value that the hero's must overcome.

Taken all together, characters will always be rolling 3 Control Dice, 1 Vigor Dice, with anything beyond that being used when they need to push themselves beyond their normal limits, at the potential cost of taking on consequences.



Characters have two different means of tracking their character's well being.

-Stress reflects the charaters physical and mental energy, how rested they are and how much longer they can keep fighting the good fight. Characters begin play with 5 Stress boxes. As play progresses, Characters will be forced to check off these Boxes, reflecting the drain that crimefighting places on them. You may only roll a number of Vigor Dice equal to or less than the number of Unchecked Stress boxes your character currently has remaining. As you get more and more tired, your attacks get weaker, you start making mistakes that you should have avoided, and your injuries slow you down more and more. If you have No check boxes remaining, Your character has Crashed, their energy being fully spent. Crashed characters need a minimum of 24 hours to rest and recover before they regain any Stress boxes. During this time, they automatically fail all rolls required of them.

-Havoc reflects how well you are able to control yourself and the consequences of your actions. Characters begin play with 5 Havoc Boxes, which are further divided into two catagories. At character creation, you must assign these Boxes to the two categories, either putting them all into one group, or distributing them between the two as you see fit. Havoc represents when things go wrong for your character, and the ways they are likely to go wrong.

The first type of Havoc is Collateral. Super-Powered battles are messy, and they can rapidly start adding up property damage. When a collateral box is checked off, it means you causes some serious damage that you didn't intend to. Maybe the building your fighting in starts to collapse, maybe your laser-vision blasted through a nearby hospital, or maybe you accidentally fried the brain of the guy you were mind-reading. One Way or another, Collateral is Messy.

The second type of Havoc is Angst. When an Angst box gets checked, it means that something happens that emotionally damages your character. One of the hostages gets killed, a beloved family heirloom is destroyed, or your forced to miss out on a friends wedding because the battle is taking to long. While collateral is messy, Angst is Painful.

When you run out of Havoc Boxes to Check off, your character Snaps. When that happens, it means the burden of your job has gotten to much, things are just to out of control, and something within you as a person breaks. This has three consequences. First, Reduce your Control Dice by 1. Secondly, Increase the minimum number of power dice that you must use by 1. Thirdly, the GM is given control of the character for the remainder of the current scene. This reflects the fact that your Hero is, one way or another, no longer in control of themselves. While the GM should remain within the character's normal behavior, they are free to have the character act in ways that cause further problems that the player will have to deal with down the line. When you snap, it means your a little less human, and a little more of a force of nature. It means your powers are no longer fully under your control. And, more importantly, since your havoc boxes are directly tied to how frequently your rolling power Dice, it means that every action you take has the chance of causing further Havoc, which could lead to you snapping again. Its a slippery slope.

If you snap often enough that you reduce your Control to 0, than your character is removed from play. The exact details of this are left up to the GM. Maybe your charcter explodes, their powers growing so out of control that they experiance a meltdown. Maybe they become a villain, as their psyche finally breaks completely under the pressure. Whatever the case, make sure its suitably dramatic. And lastly, remember this. When a Hero gets offed in this manner, they immediatly become a source of Strife with y Value Equal to the number of dice used in the dice pool which the character rolled before going over the edge. (Eg. If your character rolled 8 dice before snapping for the last time and losing all their control dice, then the GM gains a new threat with 8 Strife Dice)

Havoc and stress can be removed when Control Dominates a roll or by spending a hero point. A hero can also uncheck one stress box at the end of each 'scene' as defined by the GM, and may uncheck one additional stress box after getting a good nights rest. A player may uncheck one additional Havoc box per in game day.





When rolling your dice, there are two factors to consider. The first is the Outcome, The Second Is The Strength.

Outcome is a measure of whether or not you succeeded at your goal. Each task your character undertakes will be assigned a Difficulty Value (DV). This number may be a fixed value, or could be determined by the number of successes the GM rolls with their Strife Dice. In any case, if your Hero rolls a number of success equal to or greater than the DV, you succeed at whatever you were trying to accomplish. And if you don't, than...well, its tough being a hero and sometimes that means being a failure.

Strength is a measure of flavoring, which both impacts how the game's narrative forms, as well as has mechanical consequences for you as a player. To determine Strength, see which pool of dice had the highest roll (In the event of a tie, use the next highest value, and so on until only one pool is left). That pool is said to have Dominated the Outcome. What this means varies.

-When Control Dominates: It means you stayed cool and in control. You may either uncheck one Stress box, Or uncheck one Havoc Boxes.

-When Vigor Dominates: It means you had to push yourself, and that extra effort means your character doesn't have as much energy left to keep going. Check off one stress box.

-When Power Dominates: You pushed your powers and abilities beyond what you could control, and ended up stretched to thin. You must check off one point of Havoc.

-When Strife Dominates: Even when you win, sometimes you lose. Bad things happen, as decided by the GM. The GM also gains 1 Villain point (Note: They may not spend this villain point immediately.) More importantly, when Strife Dominates, The GM gets to describe the outcome of the action, not the player.






Villain points are the GMs currency for thowing complications at the player. They are used when the bad guy needs to make a sudden getaway, when the hero needs to screw up a TV interview, or whenever the story needs a good kick. Every Storyline begins with the GM having a number of Villain points equal to the number of PCs. As noted above, whenever Strife Dominates, the GM gains an additional Villain Point. At any time, the GM may spend a Villain point to change which Dice pool dominated for a given Player roll (Note, if they change the outcome to Strife, they do not then get another Villain Point). For example, if a Player makes a roll in which Control Dominated, the GM may spend a GM point and change it so that Vigor then dominates, causing the player to check off one stress box. Tough luck, player!

Thankfully, its not all bad. Hero's are defined by their struggles, and whenever the GM spends a Villain Point, the player whose roll was alter recieves a Hero Point. The more problems a GM throws at ther Hero's, the more the Hero's are able to work to overcome them. Hero Points can be spent in the following ways. First, a Hero Point can be spent to either uncheck one stress box or one havoc box. Hero points can even be spent to negate Havoc as it happens (Thereby preventing whatever Collateral Damage or Angst would have resulted from their roll).

The other use of Hero points is that they can allow Hero's to regain lost Control Dice, which occur when hero's Snap. If a Hero has downtime of at least a few days, they can spend a Number of Hero points equal to 5 minus their Current Control. Upon doing so, they then regain one point of Control, and low their minimum Power Dice by 1. This allows hero's to come back from the brink, and regain control of their own lives.

If characters have any unspent Hero points leftover at the end of a story-line are carried over to the start of the next story-line.




Up until now, all hero's are going to end up being pretty similar as far as their mechanics go. They all have the same dice pools, they all have the same Stress, and the only real differance is how you spread out your Havoc Boxes.

Talents are special advantages that help make your Hero more unique. They are the things at which you excel and make you special (Well, other than your super power). Talents are Mundane, non-super quirks and gifts your character has. They can be innate skills, or reflect years of training.

To create a talent, simply describe in a few words what your character is good at. "Excellent Liar", "Trained Surgeon", "Black Belt", "Drop-Dead Sexy", "Conspiracy Theoriest". Anything that can be summarized in a short easy to understand phrase is fair game. New characters get three talents, so try to diversify. It'll help you in the long run.

Talents provide Two benefits. First, before making a roll in which you can successfully convince your GM that one of your Talents applies, you may declare that the Minimum number of successes you can get on your roll to be equal to your current number of unchecked Stress boxes. You then roll, and are guaranteed at least that number (and obviously get more if you roll above that value). After your roll, in addition to whatever normal outcome occurs from the roll, check off one stress box (meaning if Vigor Dominates, you have to check off 2 stress boxes).

The second option allows you to add a number of success to your roll equal to the number of unchecked stress boxes you have when rolling in a situation related to one of your talents. After rolling, you must then check off two stress boxes, in addition to the normal consequences of your roll.

If you have two or more talents that both apply to a given situation, you cannot stack their benefits.




The first rule of super powers is that they should, above all else, be fun.

When designing your character, there is no reason to devote a huge amount of time to describing every specific detail of your characters power (or if the GM allows, a small group of related powers). Superpowers should be described in one or two sentences, at most. So long as its clear and evocative, anything is fair game. Mechanically, no one power is stronger or weaker than any other. The reality warper and the guy who's half goldfish both have a pool of 6 Power dice they can use.

For the purposes of Narrative, Powers should be kept in mind when describing how events play out. For example, say a Hero has the power of "Invulnerable Metal Skin" is fighting a mugger armed with a 9mm pistol. Even if the player rolls poorly, it shouldn't make any sense for a guy with a 9mm gun to be able to hurt our ironclad champion. The hero goes to grab the mugger, using their Metal strength to subdue the criminal. The hero botches the roll, with no successes and Vigor dominating. By the rules, the hero should fail and check one stress box. But from a narrative perspective, it makes no sense for the mugger to be able to injure the champion. Perhaps instead of saying the hero is injured, say that the bullet hit the hero's communicator, cutting him off from his companions, before the bullet deflected off of the hero's skin. The character still takes stress, but in a way that makes sense. Remember, Stress isn't Health, its a measure of your ability to keep "Doing-Hero-Stuff".

In general, any time your character wishes to Use their powers in a proactive way, they must roll at least 1 Power die. Note the word Proactive. Just because your character's power is 'on' doesn't mean it should always apply. Going back to the Metal Hero above, even if he's metal 24/7, he doesn't have to roll a power dice every time he takes an action (Unless he Snapped at least once, see above). Rolling for Power Dice should apply when he's taking deliberate advantage of his superior invulnerability. While other hero's have to dodge and duck around incoming energy blasts, when he strides forward tanking every shot, that's a clear proactive use of his power.

In the world of Heros and Havoc, all super-powers are equally important. Everyone has 6 power dice that they can use, and that's more than enough to entirely swing the balance of play. Sure, it comes with its risks, but never forget that your character is capable of totally altering the shape of the story whenever you want to bring out the big guns. There are no mechanical rules for handling what a power can do, since dice rolls only determine if a character is successful at achieving what they desired, or not. The question of how your able to accomplish these incredible feats is one left in the hands of the player.

As a general guideline, 1-2 power dice should reflect most 'typical' applications of your power. Its not really enough to strain you, at least not under normal circumstances. 3-4 dice is a pretty significant amount, showing your hero is really getting serious. 5-6 is the big leagues, at these levels, your character can achieve feats that might reshape an entire city. Just keep in mind, the more dice your throwing out, the greater chance for Power to dominate and something to go wrong. The GM is entirely within their rights to scale the damage caused by your overexertion of power to the amount of Dice you used. Big, flashy, over-the-top shows of force tend to have big, messy, difficult to clean up consequences.




In a world of heros, there must also be villains. As explained above, whenever the Hero's come up against some obstacle, be it a natural disaster or fearsome villain, the GM represents the threat with a number of Strife dice. The greater the threat, the greater the number of Strife Dice the GM gets to use.

For most enemies, the Hero's should only need to roll greater than the DV of the villains Strife dice to defeat them. The battle can be elaborated upon as much as possible before it reaches the climax, where in the outcome of the dice rolls are finally determined. If the GM wishes to prolong a battle, they can spend Villain points to change around the outcome of the players rolls, creating additional points of drama which must be dealt with.

As an alternative, GM's can assign the challenges that the players must overcome a Threat Rating (TR). The TR works similar to the Stamina of the villain, and represents the number of successful rolls needed before the villian has been worn down enough to be defeated. TV should not be more than 5, representing truly terrifying villains, and GMs are cautioned against villains with high levels of Strife and high TV, as they may end up proving to great a challenge for most parties of Heros.

When scaling villains, keep in mind that under 'normal' circumstances, hero's will be rolling a minimum of 4 dice (3 Control, 1 Vigor). So Strife 4 represents threats that are about equal to what a character can do without pushing themselves to hard. On the other end, Hero's can draw on a maximum amount of 14 dice (3 Control, 5 Vigor, 6 Power), which would mean that challenges with Strife higher than 12 are going to require everything that the hero's give it everything they have just to stand a chance, and even then, expect the hero's to have to make some tough sacrifices if they want to save the day.




Step by Step Guide to Character Creation.

1. Come up with your characters Name and General concept.
2. Pick your Super-power and write a 1-2 sentence description of how it works.
3. Pick your 3 talents.
4. Assign your 5 Havoc boxes between Collateral and Angst.
5. Write a background for your character.




Any time you roll, add you must roll your control dice (Typically 3) and at least one Vigor Dice. You may choose to roll as many vigor dice as you have unchecked stress boxes. You may choose to roll up to 6 Power Dice.


To determine the degree of success, count the dice that show 1, 2, or 3.


To determine the strength of a pool, find the die of that color showing the highest number.


If you meet or beat the Difficulty Value (DV) determined by the GM you succeed. Otherwise, you fail.


To determine what dominates, pick the pool with the highest strength.
If Control dominates, things stay under control. You have the option to remove a response check-mark or decrease your exhaustion by one.

If Vigor dominates, your resources are taxed. Check off one Stress box

If Power dominates, things get more chaotic. Check off a Havoc response and
behave accordingly.

If Strife dominates, you pay a greater price. The GM Gains 1 Villain Point.

If Stress is increased above 5, you crash and are unable to participate in the scene.

If you must check off a response, but can’t, you snap. Decrease Control by 1, and increase the minimum Power you must roll by 1.

If you snap, you lose control of yourself for a time. The GM gains control of your character for the rest of the scene

If you lose all Control, you become a villain or are otherwise removed from play in a dramatic fashion. Your character is an NPC now.

To make minor use of an talent, you must have at least one unchecked stress box. On the affected roll, your minimum number of successes is equal to the number of unchecked stress boxes you currently have. After the roll, check off one stress box.

To make major use of your talent, you must have at least two unchecked stress boxes. On your next affected roll, add the number of unchecked stress boxes to the number of successes you roll. After the roll, check off two stress boxes.

The GM may spend one Villain point to add or remove a 6 from any pool in play; The hero targeted gains 1 Hero Point. If this causes Strife to dominate, no Additional Villain Points are gained.

Any player may spend one Hero Point to remove one check from a stress box, or to remove a check mark from a Havoc box, or to add a 1 to the Hero's Control pool.

Any player may spend five minus your current Control to recover one point of Control and remove one point of permanent Power Dice.

NineOfSpades
2016-04-11, 01:13 PM
In this scenerio, Captain Energy has just encountered a group of criminals who are in the midst of robbing a bank. Captain Energy's power is that his body is made of pure energy, which he can project out in various forms. The criminals are armed with handguns, and have already taken several hostages. The villains open fire on the hero, who decides to try and draw their attention and take their attacks so that the hostages arn't hurt.

In this scenerio, here are the possible outcomes.


Hero Succeeds, Control Dominates
The bullets disintigrate as they pass through the hero's body while he casually strolls towards the villain. The confidence he feels allows him to uncheck a stress box or a havoc box, reflecting the certainty he feels towards his victory.


Hero Succeeds, Power Dominates
The energy discharged as the bullets hit his body causes sparks to fly, setting fire to the surrounding office furniture. The hero is unharmed, but now has a new complication that needs to be dealt with. In this version, the hero checks a collateral box

OR

The hostages cower in fear of both the villain and hero, in absolute awe of the energy-champions inhuman power. The feeling of emotional distance from his fellow humans lingers within the hero, even as the bullets do nothing to him. Hero checks an Angst Box.


Hero Succeeds, Vigor Dominates
The hero summons up an energy shield to deflect the bullets away, using up some of their energy to do so. The hero checks one stress box.

Hero Succeeds, Strife Dominates
The bullets don't hurt the hero, but they do provide a distraction while one of the other criminals sets up the explosives that they'll be using to make their get away. GM gains a villain point.


Hero Fails, Control Dominates
The bullets fly through the hero, striking a hostage behind them. The hero grits there teeth and fights harder to stop the badguys before things get worse. Hero unchecks a stress box or havoc box.

Hero Fails, Power Dominates
The hero loses control of their physical form while trying to phase through the bullet, and explodes, causing the building to begin falling appart and injuring most of the hostages. Hero checks a Havoc Box.

OR

The bullet passes through the hero and hits a hostage, the hero blames himself for failing to stop it from happening. Hero checks off an angst box.

Hero Fails, Vigor Dominates
The hero throws up an energy shield, but it isn't enough to stop all the bullets, and the hero is momentarilly shaken as their energy barriers are shredded. Hero checks one stress box.

Hero Fails, Strife Dominates
A hostage is killed, and the hero is to shaken up to resist as the criminals order the hero to stand down before more of the hostages are killed. The hero agrees, and will have to wait for another opportunity to stop the bad guys. GM gets a villain point.


Its not a hard and fast set of rules, but note that none of those scenerios involved the bullet itself actually hurting the hero, which makes sense to us, as it wouldn't be sensible for a normal bullet to injury someone made of pure energy. Instead, the outcome is less about how much damage the hero took, and more about how easy or difficult it will be for the hero to defeat the opponent.

NineOfSpades
2016-04-11, 01:14 PM
-Reserved Post #2-

JeenLeen
2016-04-13, 10:58 AM
Sounds fun. Was this inspired by Don't Rest Your Head? I've tried to take their mechanics and apply it to another genre (with little success), and I think you've done a good job. Power sounds like a good 'refluffing' to fit a different genre.

I particularly like the Threat Rating idea. In the little bit of DMing a DRYH game, I had trouble making conflicts difficult. My game never got past fighting low-level guys and running away, so I didn't have to handle a boss, but it wasn't something I was looking forward to.