Hero System RPG - Making a Character

Character Creation - Hero System RPG

Hi everyone and welcome to an introduction to making a character using the Hero System Game Rules.  Now please keep in mind that this is more for new players than veterans of the game system.

So first things first, read the rule book, understand how powers are made and what is and is not ok in building your powers.  For example setting up a teleportation power to trigger when hit with an Area of Effect power is build-able...but its an example a of power that should not be allowed, regardless if its built properly.

One of the things you always need to do is keep in mind how easily can a power be exploited, and remember if your going to build something that is easy to exploit then so can the Game Master.  And its also part of the GM's responsibility to screen your powers and make sure that everything is kosher.

So two things to keep in mind - 5th Edition game rules make use of some "figured" scores that run off of the characters core attribute scores.  6th Edition however gets rid of the "figured" part of making your character and makes everything purely point based.

Now the best tool to have to make characters is the "Hero Designer" program offered by Hero Games.  It does all the math for you and has everything you need to make a character.  But you should still buy the books so you know the rules as the program doesn't have the rules on display.

So with any table top game you play you need to decide on a basic theme for your character.  For the purposes of this we'll be building up a Super Hero.

In super hero games there are a number of basic rolls a character can fill:

• Tank - The tank is a character that is tough, can take a lot of damage and can typically dish out a lot of damage too, but their variety of attacks is often limited, but what they can do they do well.  Tanks are also known as bricks as well.
• Blaster - The blaster is your ranged character.  They excel at controling the battle field from a distance, dishing out damage while being well out side of melee combat range.  Blasters either use weapons or are a walking weapon.  Either way they typically have high damage and good accuracy but often lack in the ability to take hits, though they can be quite good at avoiding being hit.  Blasters also tend to have more variety in their attacks, and often also have a high recovery rate over that of other characters.
• Artillery - This is a combination of the Tank and Blaster.  They have good solid defenses, and an array of ranged attacks, but are not strong in one degree or another and thus walk a balance between the two.
• Speedster - This is a character who is all about not getting hit, and being able to hit just about anything.  They have high movement abilities allowing them to move easily across a battle field as well.  Speedsters however are not known for being able to take lumps very well, but one typically has to work hard to land a hit on a speedster to begin with.
• Quick Blaster - This is a combination of a Speedster and a Blaster.  Quick blasters are hard to hit, have low defenses, but have a large array of ranged powers at their disposal.
• Martial Artist - This is of course a character specialized in a martial arts style and often has aspects of a speedster, but is often fairly normal.  Any hero can add martial arts to their array of abilities and thus its rare to see someone who is pure marital arts and completely normal besides that.
• Gadgeteer - This also is like the martial artist and can easily double up with rolls like the brick, blaster or speedster.  Here the source of your powers comes from the gear you keep on your person whether this is a utility belt, or a suit of powered armor.
• Mimic/Adapter - This can be an expensive character type to full-fill.  Here your powers allow you to mimic or adapt to those around you.  This can allow you to adopt any number of rolls in a fight.
• Shapeshifter - This is a character who can alter their appearance.  Often a werewolf is classified as a shapeshifter, but a person who can just mimic the voices and appearance those around them is another type of shapeshifter, though they may not be able to mimic powers to some degree.
• Paragon - This is a hero type that tries to mix as many archetypes as possible into one bundle.  Paragon's are powerful, but difficult to build if you don't have the points.
• Mystic - The mystic is a character who uses magic or psionics.  Their powers can be similar to that of a blaster, but in the case of a magic user, their may be an option to swap out powers as needed.  Psychic characters don't often swap out powers but have arrays of powers that can be difficult to defend against.

Now don't let this list dis wade you from building what ever character it is you have in mind, and this list is hardly a complete one.  The idea is to try and get a vision in your mind as to what sort of role it is you can fill.

Now once you have that in mind, create your back story.

--Backgrounds--

One of the hard lessons I learned about making characters is not to write four or more pages devoted just to the history of my character.  Now some GM's are ok with that, but most just want a basic run down of who you are and what motivates you.

When thinking up of a background remember to keep your write-up to about 4 paragraphs or at most 1 page.

Descriptions of your character, their powers, and/or gear are part of the background process, but take up little space compared to your actual back ground.

This should be more than enough to let the GM and your fellow players know about your character.  Basically a background write-up is you describing your hero much like how you would describe any other super hero to someone.

--Points/Experience Points--So here is the defining difference between Hero System and most other game systems.  You don't earn experience points (XP) to go up a level.  Instead you just earn points in general to spend on your character to improve them.  These same points are used during the character creation process.

Typically the GM will decide just how many points he/she wants your characters to be.  In 6th Edition, a starting character is typically going to have around 400pts.  Now that may seem like a lot, but it adds up fast and goes just as quickly.  In 5th Edition you would likely start with 350pts instead.

Some of these points will need to be spent on your core characteristics (or attributes if you will).  Your core attributes help set up what all your character can do and the base for your skills rolls that are based on the characteristics that are apart of them.  You can quickly and easily spend all of your points just on characteristics, and while you can do that its not a good idea.
There are 6 areas where you will need to spend your points.

• Characteristics - These are your Strength, Dexterity, Speed, Recovery and so on.  These form the base of what the character can do.
• Skills - This is a extremely large list with many single skills capable of being selected multiple times to apply for use in different areas.  An example of this is the Knowledge Skill, where if taken it can apply to Area Knowledge (AK) where you know about a particular area like a city.  Knowledge Skill (KS): Technology would be one example of what the skill is used for.  Science Skill (SS): Chemistry would be another example of a separate skill.  Now you will always have a number of free skills known as your "Everyman Skills".  They don't offer great rolls to beat, but cost no points; though you can put points into them.  Skills themselves can be broken up into COMBAT skills, and NON-COMBAT skills.  Its a good rule of thumb to always put a minimum of 25pts into your Non-Combat skills so that way you have at least somethings you can do or know well.
• Perks - These are small advantages that add to what your character can do.  This can be things like being wealthy, or maybe you have contacts, or maybe you have some sort of Fringe Benefit like being apart of a knights order, or your a government agent.
• Talents - These are some small abilities that are very much like powers and can serve as a good example for how some powers are built.  Players are typically free to use most talents as they see fit, but some GM's may limit some of these, or even decide that all talents should be treated as powers.
• Martial Arts - Technically, martial arts abilities are classified as skills but not really treated as such.  There is one rule however with them, you need to have at a minimum 10pts in martial arts skills before you can use any of them.
• Powers - Here is the bread and butter of what you can do.  Equipment is also built using the rules in powers.  The majority of your points are going to go to here and the GM will put limits on how many points can go into certain aspects of a character here as well, such as being limited to no more than 60 active points in attack powers, and no more than 60pts in defense powers, and then staggering those numbers evenly between the two.

The final component after spending your points is then to acquire "X" number of COMPLICATIONS (or Disadvantages in 5th Edition) that offer their points as offsets to what you have spent...though this works differently between 6th Edition and 5th Edition.  In 5th Edition, Disadvantages give you points to spend, and so if playing in a 350pt game the GM could decide that you needed 100 of those 350pts to be points gotten from your Disadvantages.  But in 6th Edition their just offsets and don't give points; though they do have a point value.

Examples of complications would be a Fear of Enclosed Spaces, or maybe you are vulnerable to a rare element, or perhaps you have a code vs. killing (in that you won't kill).

All of these things go into making your character.  And many times your going to find yourself going over your point limit and then forcing yourself to cut back.

--Rolling Dice--
At no point will you need to roll dice to make your character.  But when playing you should always keep around 12d6 on you, or more if you got it.  And remember:

• 3d6 are used to roll for skills and combat.  You always want to roll low for combat, rolling three 1's is what your aiming for.
• If you have to roll more dice than you can hold, roll them in sets and keep track of what your roll.

--Final Words--

Just remember when trying out the Hero System, if something is there that you don't like, change it, make it work for you.  The game system is a sand box.  You don't have to run a game using the Champions game setting, you can create your own super hero world.

Looking for steam-punk adventures, you got it covered.  Final Fantasy like adventures, sure.  Dragon Ball Z like craziness, not a problem.

Just have fun and remember its only a game, and don't take things too seriously.

CLICK Here to be taken to the HERO GAMES Website!