Over on Sword and Board, where Dan has been doing tons of HiLo Heroes write-ups, Jeff Moore (the creator of HiLo Heroes) said,

"I thought you might be interested to know that between your works here and The Bane's work over at his blog I have been inspired to do a rewrite of Hi/Lo Heroes. If nothing else, I want to get an editable copy of the game on my hard drive. I only have the PDF because I am awful at keeping back ups. I plan to change as little as possible, but I was thinking of changing the opposed roll mechanic to a fixed difficulty model. It means eliminating dice rolling from the referee side of the game and making everything proactive on part of the player? I would love to hear your opinion on this. Also any other suggestions are welcome. Finally, I will make this version "Creative Commons" allowing anyone to develop further for the game"

First and foremost, I really love that Jeff  is considering releasing HiLo Heroes under the 'Creative Commons' license.

Now, let me preface my response to the idea of making rolls "a fixed difficulty model" with; I haven't gotten to thoroughly play-test the current HiLo Heroes rules set, but I'm not sure I would change it. I am familiar with other fixed difficulty models, I have played them in the past, and they work. I can also see where it makes a little more sense for a Supers style resolution mechanic. You want your Super character, well, super. With the current mechanic there is the chance, though remote, that lowly Norm could take down a Super with a series of 'lucky' rolls.  

I hope to here more about this change, hopefully on Jeff's site, about why and how this change might come about.

I am interested to see what Jeff comes up with, though I personally would prefer to see both mechanics presented if at all possible because, given the chance (see CC License comments above), I would use the mechanics for a Fantasy setting.

Best,
TB

House Rules

I really like what Dan is doing on Sword and Board. It has renewed my interest in HiLo Heroes. Okay, maybe not my interest, because I have always been interested in it, but maybe my passion.

Anyway, I have been thinking of some character creation House Rules, un-play-tested of course, for character creation.

• Degrading/Nullifying Powers - Instead of doing Life damage, they damage or nullify the opponent's power
• Life increases by a +1 with each 'advancement'
• Life can be purchased for 10 Doubles, out of combat
• Individual Powers can be advanced to a maximum of +3
• 'Add-on' Powers can be 'tagged' to Individual Powers, such as; Shadow Blast +3 (Heroic +1), designating a Heroic Shadow Blast for a total of +4, but can not exceed a total +5 modifier. (Still have to figure out the Doubles pricing for this.
• All 'advancements' are out of combat

More to come when I have a chance....

TB

HiLo Heroes: Countering / Nullifying Power

I haven't had time to play-test HiLo Heroes yet, but my tinker's brain can not stop processing its goodness.

I spoke briefly about an idea a few posts back. Conceptually I see a Countering or Nullifying Power as one that takes success to work, and rather than doing damage, degrades the target in other ways.

For example; this Spider-man has the following Powers for his Temperament...

Temperament: Cautious (LOW To Hit, HIGH Evade)
    Evade Powers: Danger Sense +1, Acrobatics +1
    To Hit Powers: Rapid Fire (Web Shooters) +1

Spidey seldom does physical damage to his opponents on the big-screen. To represent this, I see him more as a disarming type. To that end, I have thought that a To Hit Power: Disarm (Web Shooters) +1 would look rather snazzy for my interpretation of him.


The Power: Disarm could work with either the Temperament or the Build Abilities. A Temperament Power for ranged attacks and a Build (most likely best for Powerful Templates) for a hand-to-hand attack. Either way a successful damage dealing attack could strip the target of their weapon. (Limited - to a Mundane Damage producing 'power' such as firearms.) The opponent would lose their +1 for that Mundane Damage power rather than take physical damage. The target might be able to get that +1 back if they could re-arm themselves.

I could see this working for a 'Snare' where the targets Move bonuses is removed or even resulting in penalties if they don't have a Move Power...

TB

HiLo Heroes: Alternate Training Rules

A quick thought on alternate 'Training' rules that I thought I would put down in a post, so I didn't forget...

By default Powers in Training become full fledged powers once X number of doubles are rolled. Powers in Training can, by default, be use once per session as if the character had full use of that power...

How about allowing players to fuel their Power in Training when doubles are rolled? If a player rolls doubles, they can either; save the double and count it towards permanently obtaining the Power in Training (as the RAW already state), or they can spend that double and use that power then and there. Spending the double to power the Power in Training effectively uses up the double's effect and it is not counted toward advancement (experience).

Thoughts?

TB