Hero Kids Encounter Difficulty

In putting together the Hero Kids Brecken Vale Gazetteer, I (finally) correctly organised the adventures into tiers of play.  

In the Gazetteer, these are arranged geographically, beginning with the Adventures in Rivenshore, then Skritteland, then adventures Across the Vale.

The Adventures in Rivenshore tier are introductory adventures and will be adjusted to have Easy difficulty.

• Basement O’ Rats
• Fire in Rivenshore
• Tomb of the Lost King
• Darkness Neath Rivenshore

Adventures in Skritteland are slightly more challenging and will be adjusted to have Moderate difficulty:

• Twilight Watchtower
• Curse of the Shadow Walkers
• Mines of Martek
• Maze of the Minotaur

Beyond those adventures, the rest will be Hard difficulty.

• Wizard’s Tower
• The Lost Village
• Glade of the Unicorn
• Yuletide Journey
• Escape from the Ghost Pirates
• Reign of the Dragon

Which begs the question, what does it mean for an adventure to be Easy, Moderate, or Hard.

Until now, the difficulty of Hero Kids adventures has been a factor of their duration (the number of  encounters) and the challenge posed by the enemies in each encounter.

However, the difficulty of each combat encounter is difficult to calculate, due to the multitude of factors that goes into it:

• Number of heroes (and which heroes are used)
• Enemy array for each hero
• Arrangement of heroes and enemies on the encounter map
• Hero equipment or advancement.
  

Those of you who've played any Dungeons & Dragons, will know that there's no easy or reliable way of calculating the strength of a monster, or the strength of a party of adventurers.  And it would be foolish to think that Hero Kids is simple enough to afford a simple calculation.

But Hero Kids is simple enough to estimate encounter difficulty.

To estimate the difficulty of an encounter, we need to establish a baseline.  For this, I propose that the baseline is derived from a single hero, basically factoring in that heroes abilities, armor, and health boxes (but not their Special Action and Bonus Ability).  

Luckily, all heroes use the same rules to calculate their abilities (strength, dexterity, and intelligence), armor, and health.  Heroes have 4 dice to assign to their abilities and armor and they have 3 health.  The 4 dice arranged between abilities and armor reflect a hero's power, and the 3 heath reflects their longevity.  Together, their power and longevity reflect their overall power.  

This gives us a baseline of 12 power (4 times 3) for each hero.

For heroes that use ranged or magic, which cost extra dice to assign, I'm going to assume that their longer ranged attacks (and other abilities) are balanced out by their lower dice of ability dice.  So all heroes have the same 12 power.

Enemies, comparatively, do not follow preset rules for their creation, so their power varies a lot.  But we can use the same rules to estimate their relative power:

For these enemies, we have:

• Bat: 3 abilities x 1 health = 3 power
• Pirate Archer: 4 abilities x 2 health = 8 power
• Giant Rat: 1 abilities x 1 health = 2 power
• Skeleton Warrior: 4 abilities x 2 health = 8 power

Comparatively, a 'boss' creature is more comparable to a normal hero:

This King Rat is a boss creature, and is the same power as a single hero:

• King Rat: 4 abilities x 3 health = 12 power

Now that we have a baseline for a creature's power, we can estimate encounter difficulty.

For this, I'm using the following (rough) calculations for the difficulty of each encounter:

• Easy: 6 power per hero
• Moderate: 8 power per hero
• Hard: 10 power per hero

There are several caveats to this estimate.  

First, the bosses clearly outmatch single heroes.  For this, we will rely on the heroes' health potions to give them enough advantage to survive climactic battles.

Second, magic and ranged abilities cost 2 dice, but only give 1 dice for those attacks.  We'll assume that these heroes are roughly the same power as baseline 4 dice ability heroes.

Third, when there are 3 or 4 heroes, their abilities reinforce each other (Teamwork, split attacks, etc), significantly increasing their collective power.  In this case, some increase in the power of enemies can be accommodated.

Let's take a look at a Moderate encounter.  As you recall, this encounter should have 8 power for each hero.

Based on these monsters, the combat has the following difficulty calculations:

• 1 hero: 6 power (6 power per hero)
• 2 heroes: 18 power (9 power per hero)
• 3 heroes: 24 power (8 power per hero)
• 4 heroes: 36 power (9 power per hero)

As you can see, the exact difficulty varies for each hero due to the granularity of the underlying monsters.  But even with that variation, this encounter generally adheres to the 8 power per hero difficulty expected of a Moderate difficulty adventure.

So there you have it.  Is this workable in practice?  What's your experience been with individual encounter difficulty?  Will this help?  Is it close to 'correct'?

This difficulty calculation revision will be incorporated into all of the Hero Kids adventures over the next few months in the lead up to:

HERO KIDS' 10TH ANNIVERSARY THIS OCTOBER!!!!!!!! 

Check out the Hero Kids Complete Fantasy PDF Bundle at DriveThruRPG

Character development in Hero Kids

Let's talk about character development in Hero Kids.

The number one thing that people ask me for in Hero Kids is:

MORE ADVENTURES

But the number two thing that they ask for is:

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Thus, I recently directed the Eye of Sauron to the task, and worked up some ideas for how character development could work in Hero Kids.

Before we discuss these actual ideas, these are the principles that guided the development work:

• Maintain compatibility with existing heroes and expansions (i.e. equipment)
• Minimise straight-up escalation of die pools
• Allow players to choose what aspects of their characters to develop
• Enable advancement in each of the aspects of characters (dice pools, armor, health, actions, abilities, and skills)
• Continue the look and feel of Hero Kids

So.

Here's the idea, the Hero Chronicle:

And here's how it works:

• Each hero has a corresponding 'Hero Chronicle'.
• The Hero Chronicle as a number of character development options
• Each character development option on the Hero Chronicle has one, two, or three check boxes
• Each time the hero completes an adventure (or a reasonable adventuring time period, such as 90 minutes), the player can check off a box on one of the development options
• When all of the check boxes next to a development option are checked, the hero has 'earned' that development
• The development options are:
• 3x Increase a dice pool by 1 die (Melee, Ranged, Magic, Armor)
• Add a new dice pool (Melee, Ranged, Magic), such as a Magic pool to a Melee character, and gain that pool's standard attack action
• Add a new health level (Grazed)
• 4x Add a new special action or skill
• Add a new bonus ability
• Each development option has matching set of Development Cards, representing all of the development options (such as different skills, special actions, or bonus abilities)

In play, a hero would venture forth, and as they completed adventures or adventure sessions, the player would check off boxes on the Hero Chronicle, and progressively accumulate additional development options, each of which would be represented through a Development Card:

The Development Cards would look like these:

So, that's the working idea.

Leave a comment below with feedback and discussion.  I'm keen to hear whether this seems feasible, or whether the great eye needs to look further afield.

Hero Kids Bundle of Holding!

Friends, the latest Bundle of Holding is all Hero Kids, all the time!

This bundle includes over $80 of fantasy and sci-fi Hero Kids PDFs for a fantastic low price, and in support of the Reading is Fundamental charity.

If you've only got the core Hero Kids rules, this is a great opportunity to complete your collection.

Hero Kids - Bundle of Holding

Advanced Combat in Hero Kids...

Following the recent update to the Hero Kids core rules, my nemesis Robert McGovern pointed out that many of the game terms covered in the Glossary weren't well covered in the main text.  Instead of trying to cram those explanations into the main text, I've added a whole new Advanced Combat section to the game.  Below you can find the text of that section, for comment and discussion before I update the rules again.

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Once you and your players have conquered a few encounters, you’ll likely be ready to explore the characters’ special actions and the further scope of Hero Kids’ combat system.  The depth of the system is encompassed in the unique actions and abilities of the heroes and monsters that allow them to interact with each other and the world around them, shaping combat and creating advantageous situations.

Additional Attack Effects

Some attacks have additional effects that trigger regardless of the success of the attack, indicated with ‘also’ in the attack description.  In this example, the swashbuckler’s attack moves the target back and the character moves into their square:
Melee attack at an adjacent target using 1 fewer dice; the target is also pushed back and you move into its square.

Alternate Attack Effects

While additional attack effects happen in addition to damage (remember, all attacks deal 1 damage), some attacks effects instead of dealing damage.  For example, the mancer can attack with 1 extra die, but the target is moved without taking damage:
Magic attack at a target up to 4 squares away with 1 extra die; if the attack his it deals no damage but you can push or pull the target up to 4 squares.

Attacking Engaged Targets

To encourage players to coordinate their characters’ actions, many characters gain benefits their targets are engaged. Engaged targets have an enemy adjacent to them, or have been the target of any attack since the attackers last turn.  Some characters have special attacks only usable against engaged targets while others, such as warriors, automatically gain benefits through their Teamwork bonus ability:
When a target is engaged, your attacks against that target gain 1 extra die.

Combining Effects

Combining multiple attack effects is a great way to maximize the effectiveness of characters, especially in the face of difficult enemies.  This involves finding synergies in actions and bonuses.
For example, a warrior with two adjacent enemies could split their melee dice to attack both:
Split your melee dice to make melee attacks at multiple adjacent targets.
However, if both of those targets are engaged, then each of those attacks gains 1 extra die:
When a target is engaged, your attacks against that target gain 1 extra die.
As you can see, combining these actions and abilities effectively doubles the attack strength of the warrior.

Improvising Actions

Players often come up with unexpected ways of dealing with enemies and obstacles, whether it’s swinging through the rigging of a ghostly pirate ship, distracting an enemy with a well thrown chicken drumstick, or fashioning a tripwire with a length of rope.  This creative improvisation by players should be encouraged and rewarded.

Knocked Down, Prone, Get Up

When characters are knocked out (KO’d) or get knocked down, they become prone, which means they are lying down on the ground.  When characters are prone, they cannot perform their normal actions, and melee attacks against them gain 1 extra die.  To stand up, prone characters need to get up, which costs 2 squares of their movement.

Line of Sight and Cover

Ranged attacks require line of sight to the target, which means that there cannot be any solid walls between the attacker and the target.  However, targets can gain cover from objects or obstacles that partially block line of sight.  For example, low crates or walls can provide cover without totally blocking line of sight.  When a target has cover from their attacker, that target gains 1 extra armor die.

Moving Around

Moving around during combat is relatively straightforward, but there are a few areas for clarification.  Characters:
•  can normally move 4 squares
•  can move diagonally
•  may be able to move farther or less far
•  can move through their allies
•  cannot move through enemies
•  must end their movement in an empty square
•  cannot move diagonally around corners
•  require extra movement squares to pass obstacles

Ongoing Effects and Conditions

In addition to simply damaging or moving their targets, many characters (especially those capable of magic) can alter the battlefield, or hamper their enemies.  The warlock’s Freezing Strike bonus ability locks enemies in place:
When you roll a 6 on an attack die, your target cannot move during their next turn.
While the stonemaster’s Wall of Stone action allows him to raise stone walls that block enemies or provide cover to the stonemaster and his allies:
Create an obstacle or impassable wall for each die in your magic pool on empty squares up to 4 squares away.

Pushing and Pulling

Some attacks have alternate or additional effects that allow the attacker to move the target by pushing them further away or pulling them closer.  When pushing or pulling, the target must move in a straight line, cannot move through characters, can move through obstacles if they can pay the extra movement costs, and must end up in an unoccupied space:
Ranged attack at a target up to 6 squares away (but not adjacent); if the attack hits the target takes no damage but is pulled to an empty square closer to you.

Splitting Attacks

Some characters can split their attack dice, which lets them attack multiple targets with one action, such as warriors with their Whirlwind Attack:
Split your melee dice to make melee attacks at multiple adjacent targets.
Warriors normally have 2 dice for their melee attacks, allowing them to attack one target with 2 dice, or to use their Whirlwind Attack to strike two targets with 1 die each.  However, if a warrior gained 1 extra melee die, such as through a piece of equipment or an item, then they could attack up to three adjacent enemies (or even direct 2 dice against one target and 1 die against another).

Hero Kids Updates Live...

Previous Hero Kids purchasers should by now have received an email about the updates to almost all of the game's PDFs which are available from DriveThruRPG.

Here's the changelog:

•  Updated all hero and monster cards with filled artwork and for consistency in special actions and bonus abilities
•  Improved Ability Test examples in core rules
•  Updated Glossary in core rules
•  Updated Skills section in core rules to add dark vision
•  Added rules for Equipment and Items to core rules
•  Added extra monsters from print edition to the core rules PDF
•  Added printing authorization to core rules and expansion PDFs
•  Changed definition of Engaged to include 'targeted by an attack or with another adjacent enemy'
•  Updated artwork for giant rat and king rat in Basement O' Rats and core rules

This has been a pretty major piece of work to update all of the artwork and PDF files, so errors could well have slipped through. Don't hesitate to let me know if you see anything that needs to be fixed.

If you didn't get the email, you can get the updated PDFs by logging in to DriveThruRPG and downloading all of the updates through the My Library page.

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Space Adventures Released!

The Hero Kids space adventures and heroes are now available on DriveThruRPG!  This brave new world of space adventure for Hero Kids includes:

•   Hero Kids - Space Expansion - Hero Cards - Set 1
•   Hero Kids - Space Adventure - Trouble At Threshold Station
•   Hero Kids - Space Adventure - Tyranny's Shadow
•   Hero Kids - Space Adventure - Secret of the Crystal Cave

Hero Cards

This expansion for Hero Kids includes ten space heroes for use with space adventures (although these heroes are 100% compatible with all other Hero Kids adventures):
•   Brute - The pandian's strength and size makes him formidable in melee combat
•   Force-Binder - This alien Nadi can push enemies with his powerful magic
•   Merc - The merc's armor protects her from all but the most powerful attacks
•   Nadic Healer - This Nadic binds the weave to heal her allies
•   Scoundrel (Female) - Trained in gunnery, the scoundel is a cunning combatant
•   Scoundrel (Male) - And expert pilot, this scoundrel is as slippery as they come
•   Sharpshooter - This alien's ultra-spectral visor enhances his aim
•   Trooper - The trooper's armor protects him while he lines up his enemies
•   Warrior (Female) - The alien warrior's ion sword and quick feet get her in and out of trouble
•   Warrior (Male) - Years of training has honed the warrior's skill with his blade

Trouble At Threshold Station

The Trouble At Threshold Station adventure finds the kids travelling Threshold Station, avoiding a deadly meteor shower, then attempting to sell spare parts to a merchant. However, once the trade is complete the kids are ambushed by raiders and must fight to escape.
•   Adventure with four encounters and three new maps
•   Includes four monsters: Raider leader, sawblade raider, gauss-gun raider, and stunner raider

Tyranny's Shadow

The Tyranny's Shadow adventure sees the kids investigating a mysterious cargo ship that has landed at the space port at Kali Outpost. The heroes discover that the ship is full of droids in preparation for an attack by the tyrannical Droid Authority. The heroes have a number of options to tackle the threat, including using droid control scarab equipment to take control of the enemy droids.
•   Adventure with six encounters and seven new maps
•   Includes four monsters: Recon droid, combat droid, battle droid, and dark binder
•   Includes equipment: Droid control scarab

Secret of the Crystal Cave

The Secret of the Crystal Cave adventure takes place in a branching cave system that presents challenges, both fierce creatures and dangerous terrain, before the heroes can claim a weave shard of their own.
•   Adventure with six-eight encounters and eight new maps
•   Includes three monsters: Spine rat, viperwing, water beast
•   Includes six new equipment: Shimmering shard, focus shard, fractured shard, faceted shard, shattering shard, needle shard

Here are those links again:

•   Hero Kids - Space Expansion - Hero Cards - Set 1
•   Hero Kids - Space Adventure - Trouble At Threshold Station
•   Hero Kids - Space Adventure - Tyranny's Shadow
•   Hero Kids - Space Adventure - Secret of the Crystal Cave

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Check out Hero Kids and its adventures at DriveThruRPG:

Hero Forge Games at DriveThruRPG

Hero Kids errata...

I've just updated all of the Hero Kids PDF files on DriveThruRPG to address all of the known errors and updates.  This also includes a small update to the Rogue to simplify her attacks and dice pools.  The rest of the changes are listed below.

Old Rogue:

New Rogue:

Hero Kids - Fantasy RPG:
•  Updated text, heroes, and monsters to change singular 'dice' to 'die'.
•  Removed reference to 'advanced play' in the Glossary.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.
•  Changed Rogue character to simplify attacks.

Hero Cards II:
•  Fixed Storm Mage's standard attack to be a 'Magic Attack', not a 'Ranged Attack'.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Equipment Cards:
•  Fixed spelling of 'Siege Longbow'.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Pet Cards:
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Basement O Rats:
•  Fixed missing 'of' on page 3 of adventure.
•  Updated monsters to change singular 'dice' to 'die'.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Curse of the Shadow Walkers:
•  Updated monsters to change singular 'dice' to 'die'.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Escape from the Ghost Pirates:
•  Updated monsters to change singular 'dice' to 'die'.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Glade of the Unicorn:
•  Updated monsters to change singular 'dice' to 'die'.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Maze of the Minotaur:
•  Updated monsters to change singular 'dice' to 'die'.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Mines of Martek:
•  Updated monsters to change singular 'dice' to 'die'.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

The Lost Village:
•  Updated monsters to change singular 'dice' to 'die'.
•  Adjusted the orientation of the Brecken Vale map.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Tomb of the Lost King:
•  Removed parchment background from some pages in printer friendly version.
•  Updated monsters to change singular 'dice' to 'die'.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Yuletide Journey:
•  Adjusted the orientation of the Brecken Vale map.
•  Updated metadata to list full document details.

Playtesting Yuletide Journey with the kids

Just did a playtest of the new Christmas-themed Hero Kids adventure: Yuletide Journey.   Violet took two heroes through the adventure and Dash insisted on coming along. But he's way too young, and wandered off half way through before he did any real damage...

In keeping with the normal polytheistic and pagan setting of Hero Kids, this adventure presents kids with Christmas as a midwinter Yuletide festival, and Santa is taken back to his pagan roots as Odin (who delivers presents for kids who leave out food for Sleipnir, his eight-legged horse).

This adventure is relatively light on combat encounters (there are two), focusing more on role-playing and adventuring.   But it does include two new elf heroes (who will be part of the upcoming Hero Cards III expansion), two new pieces of equipment, and a new monster, the Ettin Brute.

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Check out Hero Kids and its adventures at DriveThruRPG:

Hero Forge Games at DriveThruRPG

Equipment Cards expansion released!

When it rains, it pours!   After the new set of heroes a couple of weeks ago, the Hero Kids Equipment Cards are now available on DriveThruRPG.  

This expansion for Hero Kids includes forty-eight pieces of equipment for your game:

•   Armor: Pieces of armor and shields for defense and offense
•   Items: Consumable potions and special items
•   Magic: Wands and staffs for all types of magi
•   Melee: Martial weapons for all fighting styles
•   Miscellaneous: Pendants, charms, and special purpose weapons
•   Ranged: Bows, bows, and more bows, but each unlike the others!
•   Blank: Blank item and equipment cards so you can make your own treasures

Get them here:
Hero Kids - Expansion - Equipment Cards

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Check out Hero Kids and its adventures at DriveThruRPG:

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The people have spoken: Equipment and Items!

Based on your feedback, the next Hero Kids expansion will be Equipment and Items.   This expansion will feature over forty pieces of equipment, including: Armor, Potions, Melee Weapons, Magic Implements, Charms, and Ranged Weapons.

As you can see from this example, I've decided to remove the price from the equipment, so you can hand them out or price them at your absolute discretion:

Items are one-use consumables like potions that can be carried in conjunction with equipment.

They'll be up on DriveThruRPG in the middle of next week.

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Check out Hero Kids and its adventures at DriveThruRPG:

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What's next?

Now that the new heroes are out, I'd love to know what Hero Kids extras you'd all prefer next:
• Adventure (Fire In Rivenshore), designed by Brian Benoit from Roving Band of Misfits: http://www.rovingbandofmisfits.com/)
• Pets (10 new pets to keep lonely adventurers company, or just for fun)
• Equipment (40 new pieces of equipment and items to reward your little heroes)

Leave a comment below or over on G+.

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Check out Hero Kids and its adventures at DriveThruRPG:

Hero Forge Games at DriveThruRPG

Working on equipment...

So the plan for the next Hero Kids expansion is for 10 new heroes, 5 all-new pets, and a bunch of new equipment for your games.   One thing I'm considering for the equipment is including a price on them so that you can include treasure and shops in your games:

Feedback always welcomed...

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Check out Hero Kids and its adventures at DriveThruRPG:

Hero Forge Games at DriveThruRPG