HERO TIME Art, Day 6!
herotime
Hero Time Art, Day 5!
HERO TIME Art, Day 4!
Road to the Rulebook: Tests of Skill
(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!
It’s a “role-playing GAME”, so how do you play? Whenever a character wants to do something, he must perform a “test of skill”, or rather, a “skill test”.
How it works is simple: you select a skill, roll a pair of six-sided dice (that is, the standard six-sided white dice with the black dots on them), add any modifiers, and compare that result with the test’s challenge level. If your result is higher than the challenge level, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail.
Modifiers are bonuses or penalties that are added or subtracted (respectively) from the dice roll. The two most common bonuses are your character’s skill level and his attribute level. In short, you character has natural talents that help increase his chances of success. Both levels are added to the number on the dice. On the flipside, one of the most common penalties is a character’s defense level. When he is attacked, the attacker subtracts that amount from the number he rolls, making him harder to hit.
Once you get a firm grasp on skill tests, rolls, and modifiers, you will have mastered the fundamentals of playing “HERO TIME” and be ready to go.
That is all. Until next time!
–Neal
HERO TIME Art, Day 3!
HERO TIME Art, Day 2!
Core Book Release Date!
(Reposted from the HERO TIME website)
Greetings, readers!
I know this is cutting it close, but I would like to announce that the HERO TIME Core Book is being released on…
March 25th!
Mark your calendars, because on that day, HERO TIME enters a new era! To celebrate, I will be posting artwork from the book each day up until release.
–Neal
Road to the Rulebook: Heroes
(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!
Quite possibly the most important part of the game is the heroes. They are the avatars of the players, and they are the ones who go on adventures and change the world. The first step in beginning an RPG is quite possible the most fun one: creating a character.
In most fantasy RPGs such as this one, the two most important choices in character creation are picking these: the character’s race (species) and class. They determine the character’s capabilities and skills and help him stand out.
First, the character’s race is the species he belongs to, like Human, Elf, Dwarf, or Hobbi– er, “Halfling”. For obvious reasons, the term “race” has fallen out of favor, and most modern games use something like “ancestry” or “heritage”. I myself favor the word “species” because it communicates the idea most quickly. Each race has different biological traits, which is reflected by bonuses to certain statistics and unique abilities. It should be noted that this entire concept is the source of some controversy in the RPG industry, but that is how it has generally worked to this point.
Second, the class is like a character’s job. The term itself seems, in my own humble opinion, to be a leftover from the industry’s early days with no precise meaning. Still, it is ubiquitous, highly popular, and carries a certain mystique to it, so it is unlikely to see change. The class reflects the character’s occupation and determines what kind of abilities and skills he has. It defines what he can do in the game, more than anything else.
RPGs have a lot more character creation options in addition to those, but they vary with the game, and those two are the most common. In fact, they are nearly emblematic of the industry.
When making their characters, players print out “character sheets” and write on them so that they can see the character’s statistics at a glance and don’t have to remember all of it.
If someone can’t or doesn’t want to go through the effort of making a character, most games offer pregenerated (or “pregen”) characters that are ready for use immediately. If you want to see some examples, I’ve made 14 characters for the Genesys version of HERO TIME, and soon I will release 10 for the SES version. They can/will be found found in the Freebies section of this site.
That’s all for now. See you next time!
–Neal
Road to the Rulebook: Many Different Books
(The following has been 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!
I released the “HERO TIME Sourcebook” back in 2022, and I am about to release the “HERO TIME Core Book” now. You’re mostly likely wondering, “what’s the difference?”, and today I shall explain it to you. First, though, I wish to explain the many types of books that are often released for RPGs.
RPGs usually have one major book that provides the central rules to the game itself and then lots of other ones besides. Each of them has a specific focus that provides more options for the players and gamemaster within the game.
First is the “core rulebook”, sometimes called the “core book” in recent times. As the name implies, it is the most important book, since it provides the main rules, tells you how to play, and helps people get into the game. In many cases, this will be the only book released for an RPG because the authors choose not to make any of the other ones described below. The “HERO TIME Core Book” will be one of these, and (hopefully) it will be the first of many.
Suppose an RPG becomes popular and the authors want even more people playing it. One way to do that is by changing the theme, like from fantasy to science-fiction, by releasing a “sourcebook” (a.k.a. “expansion”). Basically, it has new rules that build on the old ones, as well as lots of information about the new setting. That way, it’s the same underlying game, but with a decidedly different “flavor” to draw in people with different interests. The “HERO TIME Sourcebook” is one of these because it’s built upon the Genesys RPG by Edge Studios.
The “player’s guide” (or some variant of that name) provides extra options for character creation in the form of new classes, species, and so on. For example, I wrote a “Character Manual” for the Genesys version of HERO TIME.
The “bestiary” or “monster handbook” depicts a significant number of creatures that the PCs can interact with or fight. I’ve always meant to write one of these, but haven’t gotten around to it.
“Adventures modules” (or “quests” as I’ve called them) provide a mission for the PCs to accomplish, and is typically structured like a TV episode. Because everything is ready to be played immediately, this gives the gamemaster a break from thinking of new things and gives the players something new to do.
While you won’t see any named as such, the “splatbook” contains in-depth information about one element of an RPG. It might focus on a species, class, location, group, etc. It differs from straight sourcebooks or player’s guides because both of those cover a wide variety of subjects that aren’t necessarily related.
While there doesn’t seem to be an agreed-upon term for these, “item books” provide an abundance of new things that the player-characters can find and use in the course of their adventures, and sometimes there will be rules so that they can make their own. Depending on the game, these books may also include vehicles for the PCs to drive.
The “beginner box” or “starter set” is similar to a traditional board game, in that it includes a rulebook, pieces, map, and everything you need to learn how to play an RPG. While it clearly isn’t a book, it is common enough to merit mentioning here.
This all goes back to the original question: how does the HERO TIME Sourcebook differ from the Core Book? The former is a sourcebook created for the extant Genesys system, while the latter is a core rulebook and new game that stands on its own two feet. There are a few more differences if you want to dive into the nitty-gritty, but that covers the majority of it.
That is all. See you next time!
–Neal