I am continuing to look at Heroes & Hardships, with an eye towards running a oneshot adventure in teh autumn, assuming we are allowed out by then.
I want to go with the Robin Hood theme. It is high adventure with tyrancial Bad King John, The Dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham and the evil Guy Gisborne.
Robin Hood is thought to be a real person (https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Robin-Hood/) which helps me as I want to run a game where the characters have no magic. I am happy to have belief in magic, maybe even sell the characters a few good luck charms, but whether they work or not is a completely different thing.
The character I made yesterday is quite well rounded and I had given him Quarter Staff (great weapon) and bow for combat, plus a focus on dodging. That was one of the things that enamoured me to the system. Before I even rolled a dice I know what I wanted to play. My rolls were average at best, possibly below average but I still got to play what I wanted. Most of my stats were 2s, most of my skills are 1s and my most important ones are 2s.. This gives me Roll 4 keep 2 in core areas. I took the Lucky ability which does give me a +1 here and there.
I haven’t been able to play yet. It could be that more skills at 2 and 3 are needed.
My preference in games if for point buy stats. It is hinted at there is another option in the core book and I hope that it is a point buy system. If it isn’t it would be easy to house rule. The average on a d10 is 5½, there are 13 rolls so you can give a player 72 points and tell them to buy their own stats.
One of the flaws in most rolemaster versions was that Stats gave you not only stat bonuses towards you skills, but the points you used to buy the skills. Successful skill tests also gave you more EXP. A good set of rolls before the game even started created a snowball. You had more more development point, so you had more skills with bigger bonuses, so you got more skill successes, which meant more EXP, which meant you levelled up faster and leveling up gave you more development points to improve your skills.
I could see the same issue here.
A good set of stat rolls, gives higher stats, which gives you more skill points and they give more ability points. In play higher stats govern your chances of success.
We don’t get to see the experience system in the quickstart guide, but it should not really make much difference. I know my character is going to be keeping 3d10 in his core skills, assuming those d10 are slightly above average that is going to give me circa 18 on average.
At Power Level 1, Challenging tests, which are suitable for a starting character in a first adventure have a Target Number [TN] of 14. I should be able to make them in my core skills most of the time and some of the time in less core areas.
Better Stats would certainly help!
I may try and put something together this week and give the game a playtest.
Peter,
Thanks so much for doing a first look for the H&H Quickstart Guide. I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far.
I can help with a few questions — The Alternate Character Creation allows you to buy everything. You do not roll for attributes in the alternate system. So people who enjoy that method of building characters will be in luck.
As far as higher attributes generating higher skill points — That’s also correct. I can lead to power imbalances for different characters. That’s done by design. Not all people are equals. Not even heroes.
And finally, the TNs are reasonable based on how many dice you roll. Yes, the more skilled you are in something it will be easy to hit those lower level TNs. But the TNs scale up, and GMs are encouraged to truly use some of those higher TNs when it makes sense. Also, a great deal of rolls in H&H are going to be Opposed. That means your enemies are also rolling buckets of dice that explode as well. 🙂
Thank you so much for looking through the game and kicking the tires. I look forward to seeing more.
-Jason