Re: [HOE] Heroes&running the perfect HoEGame

["Kai Tave" <kaitave@harborside.com>]

>AB's, are for the BAD guys!

Says who, exactly?

Yeah, you do, but where else is it written?

putting them in a genre that is supposed to be about ordinary
>folks standing against extra-ordinary odds, it takes away from many
elements.


And who says that's what that genre has to be about?  For me it's a genre of
exploration and survival, survival which doesn't ALWAYS mean who can whup
ass the most.  It's about seeing the world you once knew changed in a whole
bunch of different ways.

these are guys who have abilities that are superheroic.  The fact
>that the idea of balancing them is an issue proves it.

It's only an issue to people who don't discuss things with their players
first.  It's always a knee-jerk reaction to scream "THIS IS IMBALANCED!"
rather than say, "Okay, how can I incorporate this player in a way that
provides a challenge for all players involved, yet still lets him play what
he wants?"

>    Munchkins love to play superheroes in normal people games.  Munchkins
buy
>books, LOTS of them, I'm afraid that books will do things to pander to that
>crowd.

And Munchkin GM's love to tell the party "No special powers for you." and
then turn around and abuse those special powers until the party's sick of
them.  It cuts both ways, y'know.

Eventually, if your players want to play AB's, and you keep telling them
"No", I wouldn't be surprised if any number of them just left.  GMing is not
supposed to be a purely selfish pastime.  The players have to have some
input too, even if that input doesn't mesh with your grand view of how the
world is supposed to be.

>mixing the superheroes and the norms and then expecting the Marshall to be
>able to scale challenges in a way that the AB's don't take over, but the
>norms aren't irrelevant...  Try to keep THAT one up.


I'm sure lots of GM's do quite well at that.  Unless the folks who claim to
have done so are lying.

--Kai Tave