(Reposted from the HERO TIME website.)

“Road to the Rulebook” is a series explaining the basics of “HERO TIME” and how it is played. All of this can be experienced once the Core Book is released, coming soon!

Exploring things with the guidance of the gamemaster is all well and good, but what happens when the players need to interact with the inhabitants of the game world? That’s when a scene begins!

There are two kinds of scenes: fight scenes and dialogue scenes. Like in movies, fight scenes are for characters to put up their dukes while dialogue scenes are for talking their way closer to a goal.

Once a scene begins, you have to determine turns. One player-character rolls for the player side while one non-playable character rolls for the gamemaster side. The side with the higher result gets to have one of their members go first, followed by someone on the other side, and then it alternates until everyone gets to go.

A “round” is the length of time in which everyone gets to participate once in the scene. Each player gets to do something, and the gamemaster acts on behalf of all involved non-playable characters.

When it’s time for a character to do something, it’s his “turn”. During his turn, each character gets two “actions”. Basically, anything that requires a concerted effort is an action. Performing skill tests, moving, grabbing a piece of equipment, attacking, using an ability, and so on are all actions.

This can be seen most clearly in fight scenes. In those, there are swords swinging, fists flying, spells casting, and all that exciting stuff. It all ends whenever one side or the other is defeated, and the non-playable characters (almost) always get the short end of that stick.

In dialogue scenes, it looks a little different. It is mostly a matter of role-playing, and there are few actions that can be performed. The player-characters need to convince someone to do something for them, and to do so, they must succeed at a certain number of skill tests. If they fail, they must concede the discussion, losing the opportunity to get what they want or even making things worse.

You can, in a way, win scenes. In fight scenes, defeating the opponent could certainly be considered success, while getting what you want out of a dialogue scene could be considered success as well.

That is all. See you next time!

–Neal