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View Full Version : Looking for ttrpg like Hero, but more friendly



Deremir
2020-10-18, 10:32 PM
I was hoping that the playground could recommend me a ttrpg, since there's so many of them out there nowadays that I don't even know how to figure out my options anymore, apologies for the bother.

I recently had the pleasure of completing a three year Hero campaign in a custom fantasy setting of mine, and I definitely prefer Hero to D&D, but even after these years my players never quite picked up on how to build their characters themselves (I read the book cover to cover, they did not), and I'm having a heck of a time getting anyone new interested in trying Hero out. So here's my wishlist if anyone has any suggestions:

-Freedom in character creation - I find d&d far too limiting in what character concepts it can handle, and that ends up limiting the kind of games we can play

-More player friendly than Hero - something that my players will actually be able to understand without reading through the entire book themselves

-Roleplay friendly - we like our dungeon crawling just fine, but we aren't that big of fans of crunch. My players once spent a month in game (& a few months out of game) running a bar.

-Down to earth power levels - Hero got exponentially powerful really fast, I prefer for my players to start out average(ish) and slowly work their way up, rather than being super special from the beginning

-Compatible with a (custom) fantasy setting - I like things to have actual mechanical weight in my games as much as possible, rather than just fluff, but I don't want to be locked out of campaign/worldbuilding ideas

(I've taken a look at Gurps, cuz I've heard good things about it, but geeze the layout of the basic set book I was looking at was terrible, who the heck thought it was a good idea to have three unaligned columns of all the character options?)

Thank you very much for any suggestions and your time.

HappyDaze
2020-10-19, 04:44 AM
Mutants & Masterminds 2e allows much of the flexibility of the HERO system with far less complexity. They had a fantasy sourcebook for playing swords & sorcery to high fantasy settings with it instead of the assumed superhero roles. They also had a manga sourcebook if you want to mix some of that into your fantasy too.

Anonymouswizard
2020-10-19, 10:20 AM
So basically we're looking for a relatively simple point buy game, potentially with a fantasy focus?

There's several superhero systems that could work, your favourite edition of Mutants & Masterminds and Wild Talents would be my suggestions there. They're both relatively simple games which use an effects+modifiers system to build superhuman abilities, but M&M is closer to D&D and more structured while WT is more freeform in its power creation as well as more lethal. Beware the guy with two hard dice in Suppress Nuclear Fusion.

Fate gets thrown around a lot as a generic, and if you can come up with five descriptive phrases for your character, grok how Fate Points work, and are willing to deal with abilities being more free form it might work. But if you want something more like HERO you want Fudge.

Fudge is the game Fate !s]ripped off[/s] is a descendant of. It's based around a seven step by adjective ladder that rolls move you up or down, and features DIY Attribute and Skill lists, as well as a system of mostly DIY Gifts to represent things like magic.

I'll have a look at my bookshelf when I get home, see what else I can dig out.

Kaerou
2020-10-19, 11:20 AM
I'd second the mutants and masterminds suggestion. 2e or 3e. I personally prefer 2e because the 3e book is arranged like the Nostradamus prophecies. Horribly designed book.

MoiMagnus
2020-10-19, 11:26 AM
You didn't put any "minimal technical depth" in your prerequisite, are you ok with a minimalist system?

I quite frequently uses the Fusina system (I don't think that's a published system, as I didn't find any trace on it on the internet which is not in French) which is dead simple when I want a RP-focused campaign:


Character creation:

(1) Choose 5 personality traits. Link in reasonable way each of them to one of the 5 abilities: Body (include D&D's Str, Dex, Con) / Soul (spell-casting ability + willpower) / Intellect / Social / Influence (connections, money, ...)

(1bis) If the setting has some sort of "everyone has a special something in their soul" or "everyone has a special fate", or "a special kind of magic), add a 6th trait which describe what is the special something the character has. This trait is a Joker and can be linked to any ability.

(2) Compute your ability value: no trait linked -> d4, 1 trait -> d6, 2 traits -> d6, 3 traits -> d8, 4 traits -> d10, 5 traits -> d12.

(3) Choose 3 skills your character is good at. Skills can be anything from "Fire Magic" to a job description like "I am a Mercenary". Those 3 skills have a d8 associated to them.

(4) Choose 2 other skills your character is proficient with. Those 2 skills have a d6 associated to them.

Playing the Game

Skill tests are:
+ Roll the die associated to the ability adequate to the kind of action made, roll the die associated to the skill you want to use (if any) and roll the skill die from at most one person which is helping you in relevant way (if any).
+ Take the maximum and compare to the difficulty.
[Success by less than 2 is a success that comes with some drawbacks. Failure by less than 2 is a failure that comes with some advantages, like the possibility to cancel the action before anything bad happens.]

When you make a test in which one of your personality trait could help you in some ways, you can "use it" (cannot be "used" again until you take a long rest) to gain a bonus. Available bonuses are:
+ Before rolling the dice, gain a +2 to the skill test.
+ After rolling the dice, reroll any number of dice and take the new result.
+ After rolling the dice and obtaining the maximum result on one of them, resolve an "explosion" (Each time an exploding die score its maximum value, reroll it and sum the new result. For example on a single d6, 6 -> 6 -> 2 would be worth a 14.)

Wounds:
When you are wounded, temporarily reduce the associated ability die (usually Body) by 1 rank (d12 -> d10 -> d8 -> d6 -> d4 -> d2 -> death) until the character has received appropriate healing.

Level up:
Experience points can be spend to increases skills as follows:
+ Buy a d4 on a new skill for 1 point
+ Increase a d4 into a d6 for 2 points
+ d6 to d8 for 3 points
+ d8 to d10 for 4 points [d10 = expert]
+ d10 to d12 for 5 points with DM's approval [d12 = one of the best alive at this skill, and probably known by most experts]
+ upgrades to d12+1, d12+2, etc require specific quests.

Belac93
2020-10-20, 12:01 PM
Quest has all of this, but is fairly high power level? Not ridiculous, most super-strong abilities are locked behind the Guide granting them, but characters get a decent amount of narrative power to start.

Deremir
2020-10-22, 02:59 PM
Thank you very much for all the suggestions! Especially the nod towards Fudge, which I found especially inspiring :)

I think I've decided to venture into the perilous lands of game dev and see if I can make my own system. Something based roughly on Fudge, but with less GM intervention required in character creation, and more of a Ryuutama social/traveling/adventuring vibe, rather than everything being focused so much around combat like it is in Hero and D&D.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions for games I should look at, and wish me luck!
Thank you.

GrayDeath
2020-10-22, 03:14 PM
You might want to give Fate a look too, if you are willing to go for a narrative System.

I have especially fond memories of its Dresden Files Implementation (though many a Fate Purist will tell you its not really fate any more due to its more clearly defined structure and some less flexible options^^).

But if you are sure, building a system yourself is always fun. I ahve built....4? I think I finished the 4th, but I am not sure.

Let me give you the 3 Golden Rules of System building though:

1.: Be VERY sure what type of play it is supposed to enable/allow, ergo the direction (Simulationist, narrative, a Mix of both? Combat focussed? Social focussed?).
2.: Dont be too proud to steal from Systems you like (as long as you are not intending to sell it that is^^)
3.: If something doestn work out the way you want it, ask for help, and if it doesnt work even then, dont be too proud to scrap that part and start again.


have fun!

olskool
2020-10-22, 04:24 PM
I was hoping that the playground could recommend me a ttrpg, since there's so many of them out there nowadays that I don't even know how to figure out my options anymore, apologies for the bother.

I recently had the pleasure of completing a three year Hero campaign in a custom fantasy setting of mine, and I definitely prefer Hero to D&D, but even after these years my players never quite picked up on how to build their characters themselves (I read the book cover to cover, they did not), and I'm having a heck of a time getting anyone new interested in trying Hero out. So here's my wishlist if anyone has any suggestions:

-Freedom in character creation - I find d&d far too limiting in what character concepts it can handle, and that ends up limiting the kind of games we can play

-More player friendly than Hero - something that my players will actually be able to understand without reading through the entire book themselves

-Roleplay friendly - we like our dungeon crawling just fine, but we aren't that big of fans of crunch. My players once spent a month in game (& a few months out of game) running a bar.

-Down to earth power levels - Hero got exponentially powerful really fast, I prefer for my players to start out average(ish) and slowly work their way up, rather than being super special from the beginning

-Compatible with a (custom) fantasy setting - I like things to have actual mechanical weight in my games as much as possible, rather than just fluff, but I don't want to be locked out of campaign/worldbuilding ideas

(I've taken a look at Gurps, cuz I've heard good things about it, but geeze the layout of the basic set book I was looking at was terrible, who the heck thought it was a good idea to have three unaligned columns of all the character options?)

Thank you very much for any suggestions and your time.

Check out the MYTHRAS RPG from the Design Mechanism. It is based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing and uses a percentile resolution system. The system is skill-based and uses a lifepath system for acquiring skills. All skill chances start out as two of the PC's characteristics added together to determining starting ability which is pretty easy. The HP/Damage system is fixed so no matter how skilled the PCs get, a well-placed sword thrust can still kill them. There is a bit of complexity in the magic system as you have 5 different types of magic that you can learn. The power curve can be manipulated by the GM setting some simple limits at the start and you can add complex concepts that affect the characters like Passions (beliefs that can mechanically affect the PC's skills for better or worse).

A less polished version of MYTHRAS would be LEGEND from Mongoose Publishing. While not as well written, LEGEND is DIRT CHEAP.