Heros

What makes a hero?

A hero is one of those people who always (well nearly always) manage to overcome the odds stacked against them to defeat the evil warlords. How do they manage this, who or what is looking over them? Well who or what we may not always know, what we do know is that they are more skilled than the proles, they (generally) manage to get in that vital killing blow or dive behind a table for cover from the ball of fire.

The problem is how to model this in a game. We need some way that is simple to implement yet comprehensive enough to allow the heroes to become proficient in their skills beyond the norm, to escape perilous situations by the luck of the gods and produce exceptional feats of prowess when needed. This is modelled by Hero Points (HP), these can be used for increasing skills, avoiding dangerous situations and to increase the chance of performing those exceptionally heroic feats.

Hero Points are one shot affairs that may be used during combat to pull off that spectacular dodge, to close their mind to the powerful sleep spell or concentrate their mind to allow more power to flow into their own magics.

Hero points cannot be used to affect a bodge roll (double 1) after the roll, regardless of whether it is a complete or partial bodge, however using a HP to add a d10 to a skill roll prevents the possibility of a bodge.

Gaining Hero Points

Hero Points are awarded at the end of each adventure for feats performed. The more action or problem solving a character takes part in, the greater the reward. As an extra incentive any act which is deemed to be especially exciting, brave or just looks good, has a chance of gaining an extra point immediately. Thus spending hero points is liable to gain you more points, if you never use them you don't perform those heroic acts and thus do not learn what you are capable of.

For a fighter this could be a leap from balcony to chandelier whereas for a wizard it would be the exceptional timing of a spell to cause the opponents to think again. Each action may only gain a HP once for any given character, after the first chandelier leap subsequent attempts are not as spectacular.

Hero Points may be converted to Training Points between adventures (or when the party is safe) getting 1TP for each 5 HPs. They may not be converted back to Hero Points. A maximum of 12 HPs may be kept between adventures, the rest must be converted to TPs

Hero Points Usage

Combat

Skill attempts

Roll an additional d10 and add to original die roll for skill attempt

e.g. Fighting or leaping onto a galloping horse (must be heroic not just open locks (unless being chased by a hairy monster))

For example

Kuma the fighter is attacking a troll and requires a 15 to just hit. Their attack skill is 4 so they need an 11 on the dice.

Kuma rolls a 9 which is insufficient. Using a hero point he rolls an additional d4 again getting a 3.

4 + 9 +3= 16 which generates a bonus figure of +1 over the number they required and have scored a (marginal) hit.

There are three conditions to the use of HP

• Hero points can only affect the character who used them
• Only one may be used per skill attempt
• They may not be used if the base skill attempt was bodged.

For example if a Black Skull mage casts a lightning bolt down a corridor at the party and applies a hero point the party may well be dead. The only way they can avoid death is by heroing their save. However each character has to hero their own save or they will be affected by the full blast.

Damage

Before a damage roll choose either maximum damage or double damage.

After a damage roll choose only maximum damage.

Damage reduction

Before an opponent rolls a to hit - Cause them to miss.

Reduce damage by half with a minimum of -5. This reduces both stamina and wound point damage. This applies to a whole attack set from a single creature, thus a claw, claw, bite routine would have all damage halved. When rounding the damage down the total damage taken should be half the grand total. If this requires rounding up on one or more strikes the character may determine which strike to round up. Armour absorbtion is after the reduction.

There is no roll required for this.

Gain iniative

This gives the character an effective iniative of one for 1 minute (6 rounds) so they always get iniative.

There is no roll required for this.

Saving throws

Hero points on saving throws must be declared before the roll gaining a d10 skill advantage. HP may also be used after the roll, in this case they only gain a d4 advantage.

Change a decleared actions

Actions for the round are normally declared in advance, using a Hero point allows a character to change their action and ract to a fluid situation.

Magic

Temporary points

Gain a temporary power point.

Miscellaneous

Plot devices

Hero points may be used to alter the course of the plot. Think of an idea and ask how many hero points it would take.

Multiple actions

A hero point may be used to perform 2 actions in a round performing both at full skill level, not suffering the normal -2 penalty.

Death - Well maybe not

Death comes to heros, just not very often. If a character fails a save and will certainly die (or something similar) they may use as many hero points as they wish but only after the event, thus all the HPs act as an additional d4 to the roll.

If it is a monster hitting that causes you to die then each additional HP halves the damage with a minimum of 1.