It's been almost 2 years since I last said anything here, but I've never forgotten that I have this blog and that I really should use it more often.
While I can't promise to actually do so, please be aware that I have every intention of posting here more often. So much has happened since I last posted that my life doesn't really even feel the same as it did back then, but overall everything is better than it was.
So, on to the more important topics: What Roleplaying am I doing these days?
Well, my Wednesday night gaming sessions have settled on the Pathfinder RPG and I've been sharing the GMing duties in that. I'll write a proper post explaining the campaign and how it works later. It's a lot of fun, but I'm getting the impression that it's starting to reach the end of its viable lifespan - but it's been going for a LONG time, now, so I'm not unhappy with that at all.
Still RPing in City of Heroes, though the news that the game is closing has put something of a damper on that for me. I do indeed wish all of the efforts to save the game in some form the very best of luck, and will be helping out in whatever limited means I can.
Other than that, not a lot going on, though I am hugely excited about D&D Next. I'm signed up for the playtest, and I have had the opportunity to run a couple of games using the system, and I will be honest: It kicks 4E's arse out of the park, and it makes 3.x look like an exercise in accounting rather than roleplaying. I will also share more detailed thoughts on it at another point in time.
That's all from me for now, folks. Hopefully I'll speak to you all soon.
Monday, 8 October 2012
Monday, 11 October 2010
Times are Changing
I guess this is the part where I apologise (again) for not posting much. Okay, so it's only been a couple of weeks since my last post, but I thought it might be a good idea to mention something.
I'm going to be a daddy.
My wife and I are expecting our firstborn in January 2011, and in case you didn't guess, that means some huge changes to my life, particularly how much time I get to game.
I'm really not sure what life is going to be like after our son (apparently) is born, but everyone tells me that things will never be the same again. I'm looking forward to finding out. And terrified at the same time.
So, there we have it: That's what's changing in my life right now. I'm trying to squeeze as much "me" time in as I can before he's born, but I can safely predict that come December I'll be in full-on panic mode.
That, plus trying to quit smoking puts my life at an all-time stress-high.
I'll still be trying to put deep thoughts down whenever I can, though.
Now, to make this a bit more like my blog tends to be, my major project took a bit of a leap forward over the last few days (not as much of a leap as I wanted, but that's what balancing is all about): I have finally created a core template for City of Heroes Hellions in Mutants and Masterminds. That will make the following groups almost trivial to create: Skulls, Family and Freakshow. I also put a bit of work into a writeup of Statesman, but it's tricky not to make him overpowered as an NPC.
So, Clockwork and Hellions are done, with several other groups to follow swiftly on. Eventually I'll be able to put some thought into how to handle Council (they're a bit of a nightmare at first glance), and that will be the true core of my project completed. Once I have a gameplan for Council (I don't expect to actually work on them until I have said plan in place), I'll work on other low-level groups, and make my way up through the level chart (it gets easier the more I do).
Once I have either full statblocks or templates ready for the enemy groups, I'll be poised to make requests of the owners of Paragonwiki, as well as NCSoft/Paragon Studios themselves (who have previously given me a verbal "blessing" for the (non-profit, fan-based) project, but this was a few years ago), get writeups on the city zones, devise a "Contact Directory", and wrap the whole thing up in a pdf to make publically available to anyone interested.
I'm going to be a daddy.
My wife and I are expecting our firstborn in January 2011, and in case you didn't guess, that means some huge changes to my life, particularly how much time I get to game.
I'm really not sure what life is going to be like after our son (apparently) is born, but everyone tells me that things will never be the same again. I'm looking forward to finding out. And terrified at the same time.
So, there we have it: That's what's changing in my life right now. I'm trying to squeeze as much "me" time in as I can before he's born, but I can safely predict that come December I'll be in full-on panic mode.
That, plus trying to quit smoking puts my life at an all-time stress-high.
I'll still be trying to put deep thoughts down whenever I can, though.
Now, to make this a bit more like my blog tends to be, my major project took a bit of a leap forward over the last few days (not as much of a leap as I wanted, but that's what balancing is all about): I have finally created a core template for City of Heroes Hellions in Mutants and Masterminds. That will make the following groups almost trivial to create: Skulls, Family and Freakshow. I also put a bit of work into a writeup of Statesman, but it's tricky not to make him overpowered as an NPC.
So, Clockwork and Hellions are done, with several other groups to follow swiftly on. Eventually I'll be able to put some thought into how to handle Council (they're a bit of a nightmare at first glance), and that will be the true core of my project completed. Once I have a gameplan for Council (I don't expect to actually work on them until I have said plan in place), I'll work on other low-level groups, and make my way up through the level chart (it gets easier the more I do).
Once I have either full statblocks or templates ready for the enemy groups, I'll be poised to make requests of the owners of Paragonwiki, as well as NCSoft/Paragon Studios themselves (who have previously given me a verbal "blessing" for the (non-profit, fan-based) project, but this was a few years ago), get writeups on the city zones, devise a "Contact Directory", and wrap the whole thing up in a pdf to make publically available to anyone interested.
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Hero System 6th Edition - Revisited
This is a follow-on from my last post - please excuse anything I repeat or go over again. This post should stand alone, but it might be worth taking a look at the last one, just to see how my feelings and thoughts have changed (or not).
Okay, recently I played (for the first time ever) Hero System. I've bought the 6th Edition (6E) stuff since it came out (and I have a pretty hefty collection of 5th Edition, too), and have been wanting to actually have a game for quite some time.
Well, the opportunity occured: I arranged one of my legendary weekend sessions, where a group of friends come round to my house on Friday night and leave sometime on Sunday, and in the middle there is MUCH gaming.
So, here are some thoughts about it, after the fact - I didn't make any notes while I was playing, so this is all from memory.
I ran a 5th Edition adventure (Champions Battlegrounds, in case anyone knows it), tweaked slightly to fit the 6E ruleset, and everyone was a complete novice to the system. I'm going to take various parts of the system in turn, and just let you know my thoughts.
Character Creation
I have to admit, this is where the Hero System really comes into its own. The character creation system is comprehensive. It quite literally covers everything. Want to create a spell-wielding mage, able to make the laws of physics sit down and shut up? Can do. Want to create a superhero who is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings at a single bound? Go for it. Want to make a gritty secret-agent type with gadgets and gizmos? This system can accommodate you.
It's a point-buy system, with differing point totals for different power-levels, and the GM can set the "realism" of the game in various ways, too, but the long and short of it is that points mean prizes. Some of you may recall from previous posts that I like to create certain characters in different games, to see if I can squeeze the concept into the rules, and since I look at Hero System as a Superhero game (though it can be applied to any genre, since it's a completely generic system), and my Superhero Character is Shadowe, I took a stab at crafting him. Guess what? He works like a charm. The character is extremely powerful (his point total puts him somewhere in the Cosmic-level Superhero genre), but that's not the point: the point is to see if it can be done. And it can. Some of his abilities took a lot of tweaking to get right (like the fact that the more injured he is, the faster he heals), but at the end of the day I had a character I would be happy to sit down and say "This is the definitive description of Shadowe" about. Yes, this system really is that flexible.
The greatest feature of the system, to my mind, is the utterly generic "Powers". There aren't things like "Fire Blast" or "Electricity Blast" or "Firearms" in this system. All of those fall under the utterly bland name "Ranged Attack". It then becomes up to the player to determine the "special effect" of their particular version of Ranged Attack. So player 1 might say "my Ranged Attack is called Fire Blast and is a stream of flame", while player 2 says "I can summon lightning bolts to strike my targets" and player 3 says "I have a gun". Each can then tweak their Ranged Attack with various modifiers that increase and/or decrease the point cost of the power. So, player 1 might just stick the basic Ranged Attack to simulate his Fire Blast, but player 2 adds the Indirect Advantage, allowing him to strike at foes behind a wall without them getting the benefits of cover, and player 3 uses the Charges Limitatation to simulate the ammo clip of his gun, and adds the Killing Attack Advantage, to simulate the general lethality of bullets.
So yeah, making a character who can fire electromagentic radiation and particles that are summoned from another reality... is pretty trivial. It's a Ranged Attack.
The skills are comprehensive, and there are character advantages called Perks and Talents (things the character has and things the character can do, respectively), as well as Attributes (which cover everything from how strong the character is, to how quickly he can act in combat, as well as his resilience to mental, physical and energy attacks and so forth).
Another excellent thing to note is that all of these things are balanced against each other with precision - unless you go out of your way to break the game (and it's very possible to do so, but the game very clearly makes the GM the final arbiter of what's allowed and what's not), you can quite happily say that a character point spent in X offers the same utility as a character point spent in Y.
Core Mechanic
It is perhaps unfortunate that the core mechanic for this game is the way it is, but without some sort of comprehensive rewrite, I can't immediately see a good way to fix it: it's 3d6, low roll to succeed. It may just be me, but I hate low-roll mechanics. They're counterintuitive to me. Unfortunately the whole game is written this way, so changing it to a high-roll system would be problematic to say the least. That's not to say it would be impossible - I could easily make a case for changing the Target Number (which is almost invariably based on the character's Attributes) to a Bonus, and it would be pretty simple to figure out how to keep the roll total target to the same probabilities. I could do it. But I don't want to, because the game system should do it for me. This particular downfall is exacerbated by the fact that Effect Rolls, which can include Shadowrun-like numbers of d6s, need high totals. That sort of discontinuity seems jarring to me, especially when trying to teach people how to play the game: "Well, to succeed, you need to roll low, but to see how well you succeed, you need to roll high".
It also makes combat a bit of a nightmare to figure out: 11+OCV-3d6 = DCV hit.
Whu?!
Okay, to remove some of the mystique, OCV is "Offensive Combat Value" (how good you are at hitting things) and DCV is "Defensive Combat Value" (how good your target is at dodging things), but seriously... that is the simplest form they could come up with for an attack roll? How hard would it have been to have made it a high-roll system where 3d6+OCV is your attack roll, and you need to beat 10+DCV to hit the target? Because those numbers have the same probabilities as the ones in the rules. It seems to me that the creators of Hero System have become wedded to their core mechanic (sorry Mr Long, but it's true) and are refusing to change it because doing so, while it would simplify the system no end, will make it look like they're following the bandwagon (hint: D&D 3E removed the low-roll mechanic for a VERY good reason - doing the same is not a bad thing).
As you can no doubt tell, I'm really not a fan of low-rolls.
Combat
The true test of any game-system, particularly one that is meant to be quite as flexible as Hero System, is how well it handles fights. And I'll be honest, it stands up very well, if we ignore the problems I have with the game's core mechanic.
This is not to say, however, that it is without problems. It has one that leaps out screaming at me with neon signs and alarm bells, and it is this: The Attribute called Speed (SPD).
Allow me to explain. A game turn is broken down into 12 one-second "segments". Your characters SPD determined which Segments he gets to act in (when he gets to take a "Phase"). The higher your SPD, the more actions you get in a turn. And it is relatively linear: A character with SPD 2 gets to act in Segments 6 and 12. SPD 3 in 4, 8 and 12. SPD 6 in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12, and the lunatic player who burns a hundred points in SPD gets to act every Segment.
The average human has SPD 2. Most heroes have a SPD somewhere around 4-7. And any game that allows one player to act 6 times as often as another player has a problem.
This problem doesn't crop up if everyone has roughly the same SPD Attribute - in the game I ran, everyone was in the 4-6 range, and it worked out nicely, particularly since the bad guys tended to be in the same ballpark. But if someone had decided to have SPD 8, I can see that being problematic. Now, I'll admit that the game does include limiting mechanics - acting costs Endurance, and if you act more often, you'll burn through your Endurance faster - so it's not an insurmountable problem, but it is a problem. I got round it by the simple expedient of setting the SPD range I wanted the players to have, but I really dislike such heavy-handed tactics.
Everything else that springs to mind about the combat system works. It's (relatively) simple to grasp once you've got over the insanity of the core mechanic. The fact that there are two different types of damage (BODY and STUN) adds to the system as a whole - I've always had a soft spot for systems that include some form of difference between real injuries (BODY damage, in this case) and what I think of as "getting worn down by the fight" (STUN). Getting players to understand the difference and how to calculate how much they've done of each was simple, but it took a few tries before everyone was comfortable with it.
Adventuring
Now, since I didn't have a lot of time to lay out background, explain the world and setting, and generally get everyone hugely invested (we were all interested in getting down and dirty and trying out those nifty superpowers), and the amount of "out of combat adventuring" was strictly limited. The plus-side being that the game has automatic GM-prompts for things to include in adventures, in the form of Disadvantages - things like Dependent NPCs (DNPC) (think Aunt May from Spider-Man, or Lois Lane to Superman), Hunted (someone looking for you, though whether it's just to observe, to punish or to kill is up to the player), or Social Complications (the ubiquitous Secret Identity). Disadvantages are something a GM should think of including in adventures. In the game I ran, one of the PCs had a DNPC who was the character's girlfriend, and on one memorable adventure involving an amusement park, the girlfriend was there - thus automatically creating an additional source of tension for that player, as he had to decide between normal heroic action and looking out for an important person to his character.
Conclusions
As the D&D 3.5 fan that I am, Hero System 6E is unlikely to steal my affections as my game of choice. That said, though, it is a very robust system, with lots of background material and supplementary rules, and great pains have been taken to make it backwards compatible with earlier editions of the game (so it's trivial to use a 5E adventure in a 6E game, for example). The infinite flexibility of the character creation system means that you can play literally any game you want using the ruleset, with the downside that there are so many rules to take into account that you might struggle to get exactly what you want without spending hours doing so.
The core mechanic is a poor choice. While it certainly isn't flawed, there are more intuitive ways to get exactly the same results, and I would like to see the next edition of the game move in that direction, however unlikely that is. (And for anyone inclined to knowing how I would handle it, and who knows how Hero System works, I would make the base Target Number for unopposed tasks 22, with 3d6 + (current TN) as the roll for success. Penalties reduce the current TN, bonuses add to them, just as in the current game. This would keep the maths essentially the same, and would convert Hero System into a simple high-roll system. Combat would use the 3d6+OCV vs. 10+DCV I mentioned earlier.)
I will definitely be playing it again, and looking for a slower, more measured pace to the adventures I run, and I'm very glad I tried it out, but for now... my weekly game is going to stick with Pathfinder, which is the D&D 3.5 rules with improvements.
Okay, recently I played (for the first time ever) Hero System. I've bought the 6th Edition (6E) stuff since it came out (and I have a pretty hefty collection of 5th Edition, too), and have been wanting to actually have a game for quite some time.
Well, the opportunity occured: I arranged one of my legendary weekend sessions, where a group of friends come round to my house on Friday night and leave sometime on Sunday, and in the middle there is MUCH gaming.
So, here are some thoughts about it, after the fact - I didn't make any notes while I was playing, so this is all from memory.
I ran a 5th Edition adventure (Champions Battlegrounds, in case anyone knows it), tweaked slightly to fit the 6E ruleset, and everyone was a complete novice to the system. I'm going to take various parts of the system in turn, and just let you know my thoughts.
Character Creation
I have to admit, this is where the Hero System really comes into its own. The character creation system is comprehensive. It quite literally covers everything. Want to create a spell-wielding mage, able to make the laws of physics sit down and shut up? Can do. Want to create a superhero who is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings at a single bound? Go for it. Want to make a gritty secret-agent type with gadgets and gizmos? This system can accommodate you.
It's a point-buy system, with differing point totals for different power-levels, and the GM can set the "realism" of the game in various ways, too, but the long and short of it is that points mean prizes. Some of you may recall from previous posts that I like to create certain characters in different games, to see if I can squeeze the concept into the rules, and since I look at Hero System as a Superhero game (though it can be applied to any genre, since it's a completely generic system), and my Superhero Character is Shadowe, I took a stab at crafting him. Guess what? He works like a charm. The character is extremely powerful (his point total puts him somewhere in the Cosmic-level Superhero genre), but that's not the point: the point is to see if it can be done. And it can. Some of his abilities took a lot of tweaking to get right (like the fact that the more injured he is, the faster he heals), but at the end of the day I had a character I would be happy to sit down and say "This is the definitive description of Shadowe" about. Yes, this system really is that flexible.
The greatest feature of the system, to my mind, is the utterly generic "Powers". There aren't things like "Fire Blast" or "Electricity Blast" or "Firearms" in this system. All of those fall under the utterly bland name "Ranged Attack". It then becomes up to the player to determine the "special effect" of their particular version of Ranged Attack. So player 1 might say "my Ranged Attack is called Fire Blast and is a stream of flame", while player 2 says "I can summon lightning bolts to strike my targets" and player 3 says "I have a gun". Each can then tweak their Ranged Attack with various modifiers that increase and/or decrease the point cost of the power. So, player 1 might just stick the basic Ranged Attack to simulate his Fire Blast, but player 2 adds the Indirect Advantage, allowing him to strike at foes behind a wall without them getting the benefits of cover, and player 3 uses the Charges Limitatation to simulate the ammo clip of his gun, and adds the Killing Attack Advantage, to simulate the general lethality of bullets.
So yeah, making a character who can fire electromagentic radiation and particles that are summoned from another reality... is pretty trivial. It's a Ranged Attack.
The skills are comprehensive, and there are character advantages called Perks and Talents (things the character has and things the character can do, respectively), as well as Attributes (which cover everything from how strong the character is, to how quickly he can act in combat, as well as his resilience to mental, physical and energy attacks and so forth).
Another excellent thing to note is that all of these things are balanced against each other with precision - unless you go out of your way to break the game (and it's very possible to do so, but the game very clearly makes the GM the final arbiter of what's allowed and what's not), you can quite happily say that a character point spent in X offers the same utility as a character point spent in Y.
Core Mechanic
It is perhaps unfortunate that the core mechanic for this game is the way it is, but without some sort of comprehensive rewrite, I can't immediately see a good way to fix it: it's 3d6, low roll to succeed. It may just be me, but I hate low-roll mechanics. They're counterintuitive to me. Unfortunately the whole game is written this way, so changing it to a high-roll system would be problematic to say the least. That's not to say it would be impossible - I could easily make a case for changing the Target Number (which is almost invariably based on the character's Attributes) to a Bonus, and it would be pretty simple to figure out how to keep the roll total target to the same probabilities. I could do it. But I don't want to, because the game system should do it for me. This particular downfall is exacerbated by the fact that Effect Rolls, which can include Shadowrun-like numbers of d6s, need high totals. That sort of discontinuity seems jarring to me, especially when trying to teach people how to play the game: "Well, to succeed, you need to roll low, but to see how well you succeed, you need to roll high".
It also makes combat a bit of a nightmare to figure out: 11+OCV-3d6 = DCV hit.
Whu?!
Okay, to remove some of the mystique, OCV is "Offensive Combat Value" (how good you are at hitting things) and DCV is "Defensive Combat Value" (how good your target is at dodging things), but seriously... that is the simplest form they could come up with for an attack roll? How hard would it have been to have made it a high-roll system where 3d6+OCV is your attack roll, and you need to beat 10+DCV to hit the target? Because those numbers have the same probabilities as the ones in the rules. It seems to me that the creators of Hero System have become wedded to their core mechanic (sorry Mr Long, but it's true) and are refusing to change it because doing so, while it would simplify the system no end, will make it look like they're following the bandwagon (hint: D&D 3E removed the low-roll mechanic for a VERY good reason - doing the same is not a bad thing).
As you can no doubt tell, I'm really not a fan of low-rolls.
Combat
The true test of any game-system, particularly one that is meant to be quite as flexible as Hero System, is how well it handles fights. And I'll be honest, it stands up very well, if we ignore the problems I have with the game's core mechanic.
This is not to say, however, that it is without problems. It has one that leaps out screaming at me with neon signs and alarm bells, and it is this: The Attribute called Speed (SPD).
Allow me to explain. A game turn is broken down into 12 one-second "segments". Your characters SPD determined which Segments he gets to act in (when he gets to take a "Phase"). The higher your SPD, the more actions you get in a turn. And it is relatively linear: A character with SPD 2 gets to act in Segments 6 and 12. SPD 3 in 4, 8 and 12. SPD 6 in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12, and the lunatic player who burns a hundred points in SPD gets to act every Segment.
The average human has SPD 2. Most heroes have a SPD somewhere around 4-7. And any game that allows one player to act 6 times as often as another player has a problem.
This problem doesn't crop up if everyone has roughly the same SPD Attribute - in the game I ran, everyone was in the 4-6 range, and it worked out nicely, particularly since the bad guys tended to be in the same ballpark. But if someone had decided to have SPD 8, I can see that being problematic. Now, I'll admit that the game does include limiting mechanics - acting costs Endurance, and if you act more often, you'll burn through your Endurance faster - so it's not an insurmountable problem, but it is a problem. I got round it by the simple expedient of setting the SPD range I wanted the players to have, but I really dislike such heavy-handed tactics.
Everything else that springs to mind about the combat system works. It's (relatively) simple to grasp once you've got over the insanity of the core mechanic. The fact that there are two different types of damage (BODY and STUN) adds to the system as a whole - I've always had a soft spot for systems that include some form of difference between real injuries (BODY damage, in this case) and what I think of as "getting worn down by the fight" (STUN). Getting players to understand the difference and how to calculate how much they've done of each was simple, but it took a few tries before everyone was comfortable with it.
Adventuring
Now, since I didn't have a lot of time to lay out background, explain the world and setting, and generally get everyone hugely invested (we were all interested in getting down and dirty and trying out those nifty superpowers), and the amount of "out of combat adventuring" was strictly limited. The plus-side being that the game has automatic GM-prompts for things to include in adventures, in the form of Disadvantages - things like Dependent NPCs (DNPC) (think Aunt May from Spider-Man, or Lois Lane to Superman), Hunted (someone looking for you, though whether it's just to observe, to punish or to kill is up to the player), or Social Complications (the ubiquitous Secret Identity). Disadvantages are something a GM should think of including in adventures. In the game I ran, one of the PCs had a DNPC who was the character's girlfriend, and on one memorable adventure involving an amusement park, the girlfriend was there - thus automatically creating an additional source of tension for that player, as he had to decide between normal heroic action and looking out for an important person to his character.
Conclusions
As the D&D 3.5 fan that I am, Hero System 6E is unlikely to steal my affections as my game of choice. That said, though, it is a very robust system, with lots of background material and supplementary rules, and great pains have been taken to make it backwards compatible with earlier editions of the game (so it's trivial to use a 5E adventure in a 6E game, for example). The infinite flexibility of the character creation system means that you can play literally any game you want using the ruleset, with the downside that there are so many rules to take into account that you might struggle to get exactly what you want without spending hours doing so.
The core mechanic is a poor choice. While it certainly isn't flawed, there are more intuitive ways to get exactly the same results, and I would like to see the next edition of the game move in that direction, however unlikely that is. (And for anyone inclined to knowing how I would handle it, and who knows how Hero System works, I would make the base Target Number for unopposed tasks 22, with 3d6 + (current TN) as the roll for success. Penalties reduce the current TN, bonuses add to them, just as in the current game. This would keep the maths essentially the same, and would convert Hero System into a simple high-roll system. Combat would use the 3d6+OCV vs. 10+DCV I mentioned earlier.)
I will definitely be playing it again, and looking for a slower, more measured pace to the adventures I run, and I'm very glad I tried it out, but for now... my weekly game is going to stick with Pathfinder, which is the D&D 3.5 rules with improvements.
Friday, 19 March 2010
I need a Hero!
Well, as anyone might have guessed, life has been a little hectic lately, so I’ve not been keeping up with my blogging, which I’ll have to admit is a great shame.
Having listened to (most of) the latest offering from the guys at the Limited Edition podcast, and partway through it there was a brief interlude where Hero System 6th Edition was discussed.
Now, being the RP-fiend that I am, I couldn’t help but decide that I needed to put my thoughts about that system down, and this seemed like a good place to do it.
What is Hero System?
Well, it’s a roleplaying system that was originally designed for a Superhero game, and has grown into a generic system that can be used for any genre you’d care to think of. Importantly, I don’t mean that it can be adapted to fit any genre – I mean that the game as written can be used for any game you can imagine.
It is an incredibly powerful set of tools but, like all powerful tools, it has some drawbacks.
How does the game work?
This is the sort of thing you could write a six-thousand word essay on. It’s a point-build system, and everything gets purchased using the points. Skills, powers, stats, you name it, you pay points to have it. There are 17 distinct statistics for a character, an insane number of skills and an effectively infinite variety of powers that can be constructed. Dice rolling in the game is, unfortunately, a combined “high and low” system. Roll high to determine effects, roll low to determine success. Success rolls are all based around a 3d6 roll vs target number – the lower the target number, the harder the task is, so “bonuses” increase the target number, making it easier to succeed. Once you’ve got your head round that, though, it’s actually fairly simple to understand.
The combat system is quite complex, dividing a single 12-second “turn” into 1-second “segments”, on which your character may or may not be able to act, directly dependent on his Speed stat (if you have a speed of 4, you act in segments 3, 6, 9 & 12, for example). In any segment in which you get to act, you have a “phase” (turn, go, chance to take an action), and various actions use up some of all of your activity for your phase. So far so good, though it does mean that high-speed characters (who, admittedly, will have spent a LOT of points getting the stat that high) have the potential to dominate the action. The choice of actions is huge, covering pretty much every possible eventuality.
As I’ve said previously, superhero games tend to get judged by me on their ability to simulate a particular character of mine, and, true to form, I’ve dug in and started trying to model Shadowe using this system. And it works. Oh, how it works. In fact, it works so well that I keep refining things, adjusting the particular advantages, limitations and even entire powers, just because I can make it better, more accurate. And, because of the complex nature of the system, I went ahead and purchased the Hero Builder application, which lets me do it all on my computer (which, considering that the character creation system is very maths intensive, is a VERY good thing).
Now, at this point, it’s worth me mentioning that I’ve never actually played the system. I’ve never seen it in action, and I have no idea how it pans out at the gaming table – I intend to change this as soon as possible, but for the moment, I have no idea what the experience will be like.
It’s worth noting that the game comes in two books: Character Creation and Combat & Adventuring. Both books are hardbound with glossy paper. Book 1 is all about the rules that let you make your character, and is a good two inches thick. It contains nothing but rules for making your character, in incredible detail. Book 2 is about 2/3rds the size of the first one, and is all about the rules for combat, the environment and so forth.
There is also a “Basic Rules” book, which I also got my hands on, which covers the bare essentials of the system, and is a great aid for creating characters and quick rules references. I’m extremely glad I got it.
Now, the downsides. The biggest problem with a freeform system like this is that it is essential that you have a good idea about the character and abilities you want that character to have, before you even pick up the book. Creating a character without having an idea of what you want the character to be able to do (and pretty detailed idea, at that), is an exercise in futility. So my advice is to pick concept first, and the more detailed the better, because what the Hero System lets you do is create that concept in extreme detail. In the interests of game balance, it might be weaker than you originally intended (particularly if you have lot of powers – since your points have to be spread around more, the individual powers are going to be less, well, powerful).
On balance, if you’re looking for a system that lets you tell freeform stories with minimal rules, this one is NOT the system for you. Alternatively, if you like a well-balanced system where you can control every aspect of your character’s capabilities, not being restricted to the “powers” that the game lets you have, then it actually doesn’t get more comprehensive than this. I certainly fall into the latter group – I love options, but I love rules that work to make those options fit with the options everyone else has. I love this system, even though I’ve never played it (I will persuade my Wednesday night group to dig in and have a go at some point), and I can’t get over the flexibility of it. There are other generic systems out there, certainly, but they tend to generally be quite freeform in some aspects (not all of them, I know) – Hero System is fully unified.
I know that this system is not for everyone – my wife prefers either rigid structure to her games, or incredibly freewheeling, rules-light games, and while the combat rules of Hero System are clearly delineated, the character creation rules are so utterly open-ended that she can’t always decide what she wants from a character, which makes building them pretty difficult.
If crunching numbers and the prospect of fully detailed and well-balanced abilities appeals to you, though, this is a good system.
One other thing that puts people off about the Hero System is that the core rulebooks, at about 3 ½ inches thick, taken together, are actually imposing. They look daunting. Well, the Basic Rules are a soft-cover 138 page book, and contain everything you actually need to play the game. The core rules themselves just provide more options.
Monday, 8 February 2010
Weekly Games: Mutants and Masterminds
First of all, I'd like to apologise to my players for dropping out last night. It wasn't the right thing to do, and I understand that, and it would have been better to talk to you all and explain things, I recognise that fact. But the truth of the matter is that I saw red, and I knew that if I had said anything, it would have been a screaming rant, and that wouldn't have helped anyone.
So I just quit.
No, I haven't quit the game, I have a huge storyline that I want to continue, but last night was too much, after a pretty rough weekend.
I won't go into all of the personal reasons for my poor state of mind, since it's not relevant. What is relevant is what happened last night that pushed me over the edge.
Simply put, it's two things. Firstly, I do not have much patience for players deciding not to act. It is not my problem, as GM, if you have three different directions you can go in and you can't choose between them. I don't want to railroad the plot. Any of the three would have eventually led to the right place, that's built into the plot already. "Optimum path" doesn't exist. There is no walkthrough. This is not a computer RPG, this is a game where the GM reacts to your decisions. If you go off track, I will adapt. The only "wrong" thing to do is to do nothing. But I'm prepared for that, too. But I can't say what's happening if I don't know what the PC's are doing (or not doing, as the case may be).
For the record, going to the US Naval Base is a good move. It might not be the best one, depending on your preferences and desire to get to the bottom of things, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. Please note, I'm only saying this now, after the decision was made. I will not say so in advance. It is up to the players to decide what to do and where to go. Definitely not me.
The second thing is to do with relevance. If I do not provide a piece of information, it is safe to assume that I have not thought of what it is. So, I know that the commander of the Naval Base is Captain Foster. I do not know what rank someone at the guardpost is likely to have. Nor do I care to take the time to find out, because it's not relevant to the story. Further, I doubt many civilians can recognise rank insignia for their own country's armed forces. So if I'd said "Two red stripes in a curved "V" shape on the left upper arm", I'd only tell you it was a PO 2nd Class with less than 12 years of service if your character has a military background or appropriate skills.
It wasn't relevant, as far as I could tell, since it was a walk-in character, not plot relevant, and I had a LOT of things on my mind at the time. Like writing up the introduction to Captain Foster.
I will note that the two things above actually point to something. If I'm trying to move the plot forward, being distracted by irrelevant details will only slow things down, which will only make the plot move slower, which will only cause even more delays in player decisions, because the information the players have isn't important to moving the plot forward.
Right now, this may all seem very mysterious to the players, but that's okay, because it's meant to be. I am prepared to say that this is actually part of the overarching plotline. This is not a side-quest, not a mini-adventure. This is the full-on main plotline. The characters don't know it yet, because I've been careful about what information they have. This part is all about gathering that information, and all will become clear, sooner or later.
Now, on to some thoughts, since I hate these posts to be pure ranting on my part.
Thoughts about playing online through a text-based medium, really. I'm still puzzling through how this all works. Learning to adapt my style of GMing to the environment. If I'm round a table with some friends, it's easy for them to tell from my expression and mannerisms when something is a distraction. Online, all the players have to go on are my words. I will always just lay out plot elements in terms of what players know, see, hear. I'm not a fan of explaining my reasoning until after the fact, or commenting on player decisions until the action is resolved.
I've reached the conclusion that it's impossible to deal with everything. With five or six players, all asking questions, some of those questions will be missed or forgotten. It happens in tabletop games. Just because I have a text interface doesn't suddenly make my memory perfect, or force me to notice something. The ability to PM me with questions does two things - it prevents me from reading posts in the main window, and it prevents me from writing descriptions. I hand out player-specific information via PM's, but I despise getting PM's that could be directed to me in the main window.
Why? Because it's another window I have to have open - I've already explained the 11+ windows I need to have up just to play this game, in a previous post - and it actively prevents me from paying the other players any attention. Any. It's not something I can sit to one side and deal with at the same time, because it's something that is demanding my attention there and then.
So, anyone planning to play an online game using a game system that isn't designed for it, and without custom software designed to smooth the running of the game, don't be afraid to ignore PM's from your players. If it is something that actually matters to the game, it can be said in OOC chat. Save PM's for secret information. Don't ever discuss game rules or characters once the game has begun. You are the GM. You adjudicate the rules. Once the game starts, your word is law. You may get it wrong - if you do, make a note, and don't get it wrong next time. But the important thing is to keep things moving.
So I just quit.
No, I haven't quit the game, I have a huge storyline that I want to continue, but last night was too much, after a pretty rough weekend.
I won't go into all of the personal reasons for my poor state of mind, since it's not relevant. What is relevant is what happened last night that pushed me over the edge.
Simply put, it's two things. Firstly, I do not have much patience for players deciding not to act. It is not my problem, as GM, if you have three different directions you can go in and you can't choose between them. I don't want to railroad the plot. Any of the three would have eventually led to the right place, that's built into the plot already. "Optimum path" doesn't exist. There is no walkthrough. This is not a computer RPG, this is a game where the GM reacts to your decisions. If you go off track, I will adapt. The only "wrong" thing to do is to do nothing. But I'm prepared for that, too. But I can't say what's happening if I don't know what the PC's are doing (or not doing, as the case may be).
For the record, going to the US Naval Base is a good move. It might not be the best one, depending on your preferences and desire to get to the bottom of things, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. Please note, I'm only saying this now, after the decision was made. I will not say so in advance. It is up to the players to decide what to do and where to go. Definitely not me.
The second thing is to do with relevance. If I do not provide a piece of information, it is safe to assume that I have not thought of what it is. So, I know that the commander of the Naval Base is Captain Foster. I do not know what rank someone at the guardpost is likely to have. Nor do I care to take the time to find out, because it's not relevant to the story. Further, I doubt many civilians can recognise rank insignia for their own country's armed forces. So if I'd said "Two red stripes in a curved "V" shape on the left upper arm", I'd only tell you it was a PO 2nd Class with less than 12 years of service if your character has a military background or appropriate skills.
It wasn't relevant, as far as I could tell, since it was a walk-in character, not plot relevant, and I had a LOT of things on my mind at the time. Like writing up the introduction to Captain Foster.
I will note that the two things above actually point to something. If I'm trying to move the plot forward, being distracted by irrelevant details will only slow things down, which will only make the plot move slower, which will only cause even more delays in player decisions, because the information the players have isn't important to moving the plot forward.
Right now, this may all seem very mysterious to the players, but that's okay, because it's meant to be. I am prepared to say that this is actually part of the overarching plotline. This is not a side-quest, not a mini-adventure. This is the full-on main plotline. The characters don't know it yet, because I've been careful about what information they have. This part is all about gathering that information, and all will become clear, sooner or later.
Now, on to some thoughts, since I hate these posts to be pure ranting on my part.
Thoughts about playing online through a text-based medium, really. I'm still puzzling through how this all works. Learning to adapt my style of GMing to the environment. If I'm round a table with some friends, it's easy for them to tell from my expression and mannerisms when something is a distraction. Online, all the players have to go on are my words. I will always just lay out plot elements in terms of what players know, see, hear. I'm not a fan of explaining my reasoning until after the fact, or commenting on player decisions until the action is resolved.
I've reached the conclusion that it's impossible to deal with everything. With five or six players, all asking questions, some of those questions will be missed or forgotten. It happens in tabletop games. Just because I have a text interface doesn't suddenly make my memory perfect, or force me to notice something. The ability to PM me with questions does two things - it prevents me from reading posts in the main window, and it prevents me from writing descriptions. I hand out player-specific information via PM's, but I despise getting PM's that could be directed to me in the main window.
Why? Because it's another window I have to have open - I've already explained the 11+ windows I need to have up just to play this game, in a previous post - and it actively prevents me from paying the other players any attention. Any. It's not something I can sit to one side and deal with at the same time, because it's something that is demanding my attention there and then.
So, anyone planning to play an online game using a game system that isn't designed for it, and without custom software designed to smooth the running of the game, don't be afraid to ignore PM's from your players. If it is something that actually matters to the game, it can be said in OOC chat. Save PM's for secret information. Don't ever discuss game rules or characters once the game has begun. You are the GM. You adjudicate the rules. Once the game starts, your word is law. You may get it wrong - if you do, make a note, and don't get it wrong next time. But the important thing is to keep things moving.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Time passes...
Well, it's been an age since I've posted anything here, but I didn't want anyone to think that I'd forgotten this place. Life has been a bit busy, recently, and a change at work means that I no longer get the opportunity to write these blogposts in the office, which is what's really put the brakes on doing so.
For those interested, I'm still running my weekly games, and this is just a brief update about where I am with them.
Mutants & Masterminds
This game is on Christmas hiatus right now, resuming in the New Year, having basically finished the last plotline. Go players! Especially since I managed to sneak in the old "reverse morality fight yourselves" trope. Which was, frankly, awesome, especially since it was the single largest combat I've run so far, and it went a lot more smoothly than I anticipated. Here's a hint to any budding online GMs out there - make the players do as much of the work as you can! That saves you time all the way down the line, allowing you to focus in rule adjudication and description. I'm still working on whether I should ask my players to write the descriptions of when they get hit in combat, as well the effect of their own strikes. I'd love it if they're willing, because it will allow them even more creative input into events, and simultaneously free me up to concentrate on keeping the game running smoothly, which could well chop combat time to about 2/3rds of the current length (which is still far too long for my liking).
For anyone interested (and assuming at least a basic knowledge of the M&M damage system), when a player hits an NPC in combat, I will write the outcome in a very simple format, straight into the OOC chatbox. These range from "Miss" to "Hit, no effect" through "Hit, Bruised", "Hit, Stunned", "Hit, Stunned, KB 25 feet" all the way up to "Hit, Unconscious, KB 1000 feet, hit a wall, wall does Bruise". It is then up to the player to describe the action in the IC chatbox, as well as the effect. This works brilliantly, because it means that as soon as I've said that in the OOC chatbox, I can call for the next character.
The problem I've experienced, though, is when I get multiple NPCs acting one after the other. Since I've retained control of the descriptive text for NPC actions, it can tie me up for several minutes while I detail it. If I can pass that across to the players, in a similar format (I'm thinking, say, "Speedbreak punches Liberty Belle. Hit, Stunned, Staggered, KB 10 feet" or "Death Knell uses mace on Scrub, Hit, Bruised") and leave it up to the players to write the descritpions for me, that could save me an inordinate amount of time.
I know that some of my players read this blog, so let me know what you think.
Dungeons & Dragons
My D&D game reached a natural pause point just before Christmas, so we paused. And entered into a huge debate about whether we like 4E enough to carry it on. The quick answer is "No". The long answer is as follows: D&D 4E is an incredibly sophisticated miniatures combat system, well balanced, very MMO-esque... and not flexible enough. I do not dislike it. I just don't like it as the premier fantasy RPG on the market. So, rather than playing D&D 4E, my Wednesday night gaming group is shifting to D20 Modern and giving that a go. I'll let you know how it works out for us.
City of Heroes
Obviously, as anyone who knows me even a little bit will be able to atest, I roleplay in City of Heroes. A lot. I still am. I've been very consciously avoiding major plotlines recently (which actually caused some friction in-game recently, since my character ended up refusing to help someone for possibly spurious reasons), but still going along regularly and getting involed with in-depth character interaction. There's a lot going on, as usual.
That's pretty much all there is to say for now. More soon, hopefully!
For those interested, I'm still running my weekly games, and this is just a brief update about where I am with them.
Mutants & Masterminds
This game is on Christmas hiatus right now, resuming in the New Year, having basically finished the last plotline. Go players! Especially since I managed to sneak in the old "reverse morality fight yourselves" trope. Which was, frankly, awesome, especially since it was the single largest combat I've run so far, and it went a lot more smoothly than I anticipated. Here's a hint to any budding online GMs out there - make the players do as much of the work as you can! That saves you time all the way down the line, allowing you to focus in rule adjudication and description. I'm still working on whether I should ask my players to write the descriptions of when they get hit in combat, as well the effect of their own strikes. I'd love it if they're willing, because it will allow them even more creative input into events, and simultaneously free me up to concentrate on keeping the game running smoothly, which could well chop combat time to about 2/3rds of the current length (which is still far too long for my liking).
For anyone interested (and assuming at least a basic knowledge of the M&M damage system), when a player hits an NPC in combat, I will write the outcome in a very simple format, straight into the OOC chatbox. These range from "Miss" to "Hit, no effect" through "Hit, Bruised", "Hit, Stunned", "Hit, Stunned, KB 25 feet" all the way up to "Hit, Unconscious, KB 1000 feet, hit a wall, wall does Bruise". It is then up to the player to describe the action in the IC chatbox, as well as the effect. This works brilliantly, because it means that as soon as I've said that in the OOC chatbox, I can call for the next character.
The problem I've experienced, though, is when I get multiple NPCs acting one after the other. Since I've retained control of the descriptive text for NPC actions, it can tie me up for several minutes while I detail it. If I can pass that across to the players, in a similar format (I'm thinking, say, "Speedbreak punches Liberty Belle. Hit, Stunned, Staggered, KB 10 feet" or "Death Knell uses mace on Scrub, Hit, Bruised") and leave it up to the players to write the descritpions for me, that could save me an inordinate amount of time.
I know that some of my players read this blog, so let me know what you think.
Dungeons & Dragons
My D&D game reached a natural pause point just before Christmas, so we paused. And entered into a huge debate about whether we like 4E enough to carry it on. The quick answer is "No". The long answer is as follows: D&D 4E is an incredibly sophisticated miniatures combat system, well balanced, very MMO-esque... and not flexible enough. I do not dislike it. I just don't like it as the premier fantasy RPG on the market. So, rather than playing D&D 4E, my Wednesday night gaming group is shifting to D20 Modern and giving that a go. I'll let you know how it works out for us.
City of Heroes
Obviously, as anyone who knows me even a little bit will be able to atest, I roleplay in City of Heroes. A lot. I still am. I've been very consciously avoiding major plotlines recently (which actually caused some friction in-game recently, since my character ended up refusing to help someone for possibly spurious reasons), but still going along regularly and getting involed with in-depth character interaction. There's a lot going on, as usual.
That's pretty much all there is to say for now. More soon, hopefully!
Monday, 2 November 2009
Villainy - the depths of depravity and beyond.
In my last post I examined my personal beliefs about heroism, and what it means to be a hero. This post is about the complementary subject - villainy.
Firstly, I will say that I believe that there is a fundamental difference between villainy and evil. To me, evil is the belief that one can impose ones thoughts and feelings on others, and that one has the right to do so. Evil has no regard for the feelings of others, because to the evil being, other people are not important. On the other hand, villainy is simply the conscious choice to act out of selfishness. It accepts that the feelings of others exist and are important to them, and then does something potentially hurtful anyway. Not usually because the villain believes he has the right to do it, but because he has a need to do it, because some external force is bearing upon him.
Taking a quick look at some iconic villains, then:
Lex Luthor. Lex is, to my mind, actually evil. He may not be casually cruel, but he certainly feels that he has the right to do anything he pleases. His own cunning allows him to temper his activities in such a way that it is not obvious to the world at large, but his core drive has no sympathy for the plight of other people.
Darth Vader: Okay, not a villain in the superhero sense, but a totally iconic villain nonetheless. The important thing to note about Vader is that he changes. I'm going to ignore The Phantom Menace, because he's too young to actually make reasoned choices, but in Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker is clearly a hero. However, in Revenge of the Sith he rapidly shifts to villainy as a result of his fears of the future, and leaps to evil later on in the same film when Palpatine manages to convince him that taking iron control of his future is the right thing to do. While I think that it was done too quickly, it was actually an interesting visualisation of the fall from grace.
Catwoman. Not sure why I'm pulling DC villains out for this, other than that my exposure to DC was a lot higher than to Marvel when I was younger, because, frankly Batman is COOL. Anyway, Catwoman is a villain. She's a crook, a thief, not out to rule the world, just out for what she can get. She doesn't try to impose herself on other people except to get things she wants.
And, just for completionism, a look at my own villain from City of Heroes (well, City of Villains) - Psychonova. He's evil. I'm really not sure that I can go into all of the reasons why, but he is. He was meant to be, and continues to be, a truly despicable person, without any care or regard for the thoughts of feelings of others. Out for what he wants, and willing to do anything to get it. He's pretty much textbook evil, as far as I'm concerned.
The themes prevalent in those who are truly evil become obvious - some event or knowledge convinces the evil person that they have the one true vision of the way the world should be. Conversely, a villain is usually driven to their actions by some outside force or impulse. While it is possible for a villain to descend into evil, it is quite rare for someone who is evil to then ascend back. But it does happen. Darth Vader is a good case-in-point of this, with his redemption at the hands of his son. One thing that I'm not sure I've ever actually witnessed, though, is an evil person changing to become merely a villain. They will usually jump straight back to good or heroic. The change of heart that makes someone recognise the rights and values of others tends to blot out any prospect of villainy.
I can't take the time to discuss the myriad means by which a villain can descend to that level - might as well try to count the stars in the sky, because there are at least that many answers.
When it comes to roleplaying, then, it is always a good idea for the GM to know if the "bad guy" is villainous or evil, because the flavour of their activity will be coloured by it. A lot of modern comic books take the time to delve into the psyche of the antagonist, to explore what makes them the person that they are, and that is a good thing, since it allows us to explore the human phase-space of experience and events in a safe environment, but the thing that I personally enjoy is a well represented evil character. The Joker. Lex Luthor. Galactus. Megatron. Sometimes I like to hate the bad guy. It's why I made Psychonova as evil as he is - I get a lot of joy out of trouncing someone who is unequivocally evil, and offering that chance to my fellow RPers is part of the joy I take in running plots and GMing.
In conclusion: While similar, villainy and evilness are by no means the same thing. Evil may be a sub-set of villainy, but there are some clear distinctions and knowing the boundaries of each is worthwhile for anyone preparing to play a villain or an evil character. And, while it is a perfectly valid thing in this day and age of social awareness to ascribe motivations and reasoned actions to characters, to give them the chance at the sympathy vote from players, a GM should not be afraid to introduce a "bad guy" who is just plain EVIL. Being able to pound on someone because doing so is simply the right thing to do, without having to second-guess your actions, is one of the great pleasures in roleplaying, and it never hurts to let the players do it.
Firstly, I will say that I believe that there is a fundamental difference between villainy and evil. To me, evil is the belief that one can impose ones thoughts and feelings on others, and that one has the right to do so. Evil has no regard for the feelings of others, because to the evil being, other people are not important. On the other hand, villainy is simply the conscious choice to act out of selfishness. It accepts that the feelings of others exist and are important to them, and then does something potentially hurtful anyway. Not usually because the villain believes he has the right to do it, but because he has a need to do it, because some external force is bearing upon him.
Taking a quick look at some iconic villains, then:
Lex Luthor. Lex is, to my mind, actually evil. He may not be casually cruel, but he certainly feels that he has the right to do anything he pleases. His own cunning allows him to temper his activities in such a way that it is not obvious to the world at large, but his core drive has no sympathy for the plight of other people.
Darth Vader: Okay, not a villain in the superhero sense, but a totally iconic villain nonetheless. The important thing to note about Vader is that he changes. I'm going to ignore The Phantom Menace, because he's too young to actually make reasoned choices, but in Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker is clearly a hero. However, in Revenge of the Sith he rapidly shifts to villainy as a result of his fears of the future, and leaps to evil later on in the same film when Palpatine manages to convince him that taking iron control of his future is the right thing to do. While I think that it was done too quickly, it was actually an interesting visualisation of the fall from grace.
Catwoman. Not sure why I'm pulling DC villains out for this, other than that my exposure to DC was a lot higher than to Marvel when I was younger, because, frankly Batman is COOL. Anyway, Catwoman is a villain. She's a crook, a thief, not out to rule the world, just out for what she can get. She doesn't try to impose herself on other people except to get things she wants.
And, just for completionism, a look at my own villain from City of Heroes (well, City of Villains) - Psychonova. He's evil. I'm really not sure that I can go into all of the reasons why, but he is. He was meant to be, and continues to be, a truly despicable person, without any care or regard for the thoughts of feelings of others. Out for what he wants, and willing to do anything to get it. He's pretty much textbook evil, as far as I'm concerned.
The themes prevalent in those who are truly evil become obvious - some event or knowledge convinces the evil person that they have the one true vision of the way the world should be. Conversely, a villain is usually driven to their actions by some outside force or impulse. While it is possible for a villain to descend into evil, it is quite rare for someone who is evil to then ascend back. But it does happen. Darth Vader is a good case-in-point of this, with his redemption at the hands of his son. One thing that I'm not sure I've ever actually witnessed, though, is an evil person changing to become merely a villain. They will usually jump straight back to good or heroic. The change of heart that makes someone recognise the rights and values of others tends to blot out any prospect of villainy.
I can't take the time to discuss the myriad means by which a villain can descend to that level - might as well try to count the stars in the sky, because there are at least that many answers.
When it comes to roleplaying, then, it is always a good idea for the GM to know if the "bad guy" is villainous or evil, because the flavour of their activity will be coloured by it. A lot of modern comic books take the time to delve into the psyche of the antagonist, to explore what makes them the person that they are, and that is a good thing, since it allows us to explore the human phase-space of experience and events in a safe environment, but the thing that I personally enjoy is a well represented evil character. The Joker. Lex Luthor. Galactus. Megatron. Sometimes I like to hate the bad guy. It's why I made Psychonova as evil as he is - I get a lot of joy out of trouncing someone who is unequivocally evil, and offering that chance to my fellow RPers is part of the joy I take in running plots and GMing.
In conclusion: While similar, villainy and evilness are by no means the same thing. Evil may be a sub-set of villainy, but there are some clear distinctions and knowing the boundaries of each is worthwhile for anyone preparing to play a villain or an evil character. And, while it is a perfectly valid thing in this day and age of social awareness to ascribe motivations and reasoned actions to characters, to give them the chance at the sympathy vote from players, a GM should not be afraid to introduce a "bad guy" who is just plain EVIL. Being able to pound on someone because doing so is simply the right thing to do, without having to second-guess your actions, is one of the great pleasures in roleplaying, and it never hurts to let the players do it.
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