City of Heroes Tabletop
By
American_Knight,
Posted on: 2012-09-11 13:02 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
This looks pretty awesome and I'll definitely be grabbing a copy whenever you guys finish. Any idea if you'll do something for villains? I've always been more of a red then blue guy myself, really.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
This seems pretty cool! Similar to the Superhero D20 system I've been making... mostly because a lot of it has been influenced by City Of 
Why did you guys only do the first 5 AT's, by the way?
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Originally Posted by Khellendrosiic
This looks pretty awesome and I'll definitely be grabbing a copy whenever you guys finish. Any idea if you'll do something for villains? I've always been more of a red then blue guy myself, really.
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Originally Posted by Player99
This seems pretty cool! Similar to the Superhero D20 system I've been making... mostly because a lot of it has been influenced by City Of
Why did you guys only do the first 5 AT's, by the way? |
We'll always have Paragon.
^Go to bed, you jerk.
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We've had some basic discussions about tackling villains, but that's definitely pie in the sky at the moment. Converting villain ATs into a game like this is much more difficult (primarily Masterminds, though I did have at least one idea regarding that) and writing pre-made villain content is slightly trickier.|
Originally Posted by Khellendrosiic
This looks pretty awesome and I'll definitely be grabbing a copy whenever you guys finish. Any idea if you'll do something for villains? I've always been more of a red then blue guy myself, really.
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But both of those are ultimately minor stumbling points. Really, we've just had enough hurdles to overcome in designing the basic systems and balancing things and implementing new ideas that tackling an entire second everything just wasn't in the cards. Similarly, don't expect much attention to be paid to Praetorians this early on.
In the meantime though, considering how much powerset crossover there is, a crafty GM could probably whip up a makeshift villain set-up and write the rest of the content you'd need from scratch.
(Yes, I am essentially advocating a homebrew for a homebrew. What of it?)
Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!
Well, wouldn't making the villains be relativley simple?
I mean, the corruptor would have damage halfway between the defender/blaster, and the same "buff/debuff" as the controller, with scourge activating at a roll say... on a 19-20 if the foe is 1/2 HP, and -2 for every 10% there after (17-20, 15-20, etc) as a thought.
Brute's fury could work like my Berserker's... fury I have in mine: Every hit landed by or on the Brute increases their next attack's damage by 1 per hit for the next 2-3 rounds, stacking. Then they just have max HP between Tank/Scrap, yadda yadda.
Stalkers just work like rogues kinda lol.
Dominators could just have baseline damage values compared to everyone, and get access to the control/damage sets, and then domination is built up by successfully landing X attacks over time or such.
Masterminds are trickier yeah, but ovb they'd have the worst HP, but gain little NPC's they have some control over like in-game, with the player able to control minions to do things instead of taking an action him/herself that turn. Supremacy/Bodyguard works like in-game as well, if they're in X range of the MM, it works.
I would advise to have a strong hard look at Mutants and Masterminds before developing something from scratch.
I would suggest taking M&M as your basis and developing on top of that. The main thing that seems to be missing are Inventions and the associated mechanic to slot powers. Next to that CoH would not use skills.
It's based on D20, so a lot of tabletop gamers would find it familiar. It's also based on the Open Gaming Licence, so you just can use large parts of it.
Sure combat in CoH is more complex, but that's way to complicated for a tabletop game to simulate.
Other than that I agree with the other posters that you should avoid using the CoH name and associated IP, it can land you in trouble.
An extensive guide on how to adopt M&M to play CoH style might be ok though, if you avoid most of the specifics. I think a guide on how to build a character in M&M that plays like a "Dual Blades" Brute or SuperStrength Tank would be ok. Writing down the stats for Back Ally Brawler would not.
Just like M&M could make stats for a Power Suit Archetype, but not for Iron Man or Positron.
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Yes and no.|
Originally Posted by Player99
Well, wouldn't making the villains be relativley simple?
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Villain ATs are more tightly wound around their inherents, while as of right now our hero ATs have had their inherents intentionally downplayed (mostly because most get easily rolled up into powers design and/or were underwhelming to begin with).
Charge-based mechanics like Fury and Domination, if they were translated as-is, would add overhead to things the player needs to constantly keep track of, which is something we're trying to avoid. Scourge is an awkward mechanic even in the MMO, and it would be doubly awkward on paper; it's doubtful it will survive the transition if we do villains.
Masterminds are a problem, as allowing one player to flood combat with proxy targets does messy things across the board. The idea that's floating around in my head is to allow MMs one or two pets tops, but also allow them to use their command powers on allies, giving them bonuses and buffs. In essence, the Mastermind's teammates become his henchmen.
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Originally Posted by RogerWilco
I would advise to have a strong hard look at Mutants and Masterminds before developing something from scratch.
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Originally Posted by RogerWilco
The main thing that seems to be missing are Inventions and the associated mechanic to slot powers.
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The one thing that does work from the enhancement system is the meaningful choices it asks the player to make in how they slot their powers. The Perk Grid is meant to echo these sorts of choices, and Demeanors are where we're currently experimenting with interesting bonuses (and penalties) that do more than just give +1 to this or +2 to that.
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Originally Posted by RogerWilco
Next to that CoH would not use skills.
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Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!
My first devblog, "What, Why, and How", is up. I hope I didn't ramble on too much. One of our motivations for these devblogs is that we fully understand the frustration when developers seemingly do things "for no reason". We intend to explain ourselves and our development process to the fullest extent possible. You might not agree with our reasoning, but it certainly won't be a mystery. 
Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!
We'll always have Paragon.
Brandon: A mutual friend (Makai_No_Falco on these boards) told me about your efforts to create a supers pen and paper game some months ago, but what he didn't tell me was that it was City of Heroes based. As a game designer and an avid fan of City of Heroes, I have to admit that I'm intrigued. I had actually asked him to offer you my assistance, but it looks like your team and I have some very different design ideas when it comes to a tabletop supers game. I know some people like crunch - what you called "more paperwork" in your first video - but how well does your game emulate the rush in and take down the bad guy sort of flavor City of Heroes has given us these last eight plus years? It seems like there's a lot of bookkeeping, which might bog down the sort of "action movie" feel our time in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles have provided.
An abundance of crunch is one of the reasons I've abandoned Dungeons & Dragons for lighter games, like those that utilize the FATE system. Fluid, narrative games seem to carry more of the spirit of the comic book than tactical, numbers-heavy systems, at least in my opinion.
Where do we go from here?
Since it's been a while, it's time for an update!
1.) There will be a new development video up within the next day or so, discussing how we created and adapted powersets.
2.) We've moved into the testing phase. The first few playtests have gone beautifully, and we're extremely happy with how things have shaken out. Very soon (within the next week or so), I'm going to be looking for more testers. I'll post here and on the development blog how to sign up for those tests. We will be trying to record our tests so those of you who can't take part can still get a feel for how the game plays.
We at Great Forge are overjoyed at how much support we've received so far, and we're kicking into high gear so we can have the game playable by November 30.
We'll always have Paragon.
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There are a number of Harry Potter fan fiction sites going. The there was a big closing when they took action against sites they thought were abusing the thing. Some outright porn sites using the characters from the series, some trying to make money from it.|
Originally Posted by IanTheM1
I was not aware this was a thing that happened, especially odd considering Rowling's stance on fan fiction.
Anyway, as previously said, can we please move away from legal discussion? We are aware of the situation and thank you for the concern. |
And in any case, should NCSoft notice what's going on and object, the first action would be to send in a cease and desist letter. If that gets the action they desire (either complete cease and desist or a really good job of rubbing the serial numbers off the IP), it's pretty much unheard of for further action to be taken, particularly when there's no money involved.
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout
Bookmarked the blog! Color me intrigued.
A new post on the blog about Demeanors!
We'll always have Paragon.
Anyway, as previously said, can we please move away from legal discussion? We are aware of the situation and thank you for the concern.
Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!