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

Hero Kids review round-up

No time like the present to scrape the latest Hero Kids reviews for insights.

First, we have an in-depth review of Hero Kids on YouTube:

That review includes an interesting Adventure Blueprint framework to structure adventures for beginner players all the way up to experienced players:

Second, I'm seeing a theme of people using Hero Kids in their 'normal' games, not just with kids:

"Simple, objective, upgradable, replayable, PERFECT! Awesome to play with kids but I cannot deny that I am playing with a group of adult friends and we are having a lot of fun. LOL"

Third, we have lots of feedback from people introing their kids to RPGs with Hero Kids:

"Great product! I was wanting to introduce my 9yo to tabletop RPGs and this was a perfect way. She grasped it quickly and wants to play every weekend now. I will be buying the rest of the modules now I guess! Thanks!"

"This is absolutely fantastic for younger kids getting into rpg's, i started by getting my kids (3, 4 and 8) to choose a hero out of the coloriong book, a separate free download, and got them to color in their heroes as we played (a helpful distraction at times for the younger 2).
I had my 8 year old help the 3 year old at times but he is definitely keen to play more, and all 3 kids already feel a connection to there heroes and each others, (one encounter I may have KO'd one of their heroes causing them to get a little upset....but they worked out they could use a potion on him to get him up again).
Things are easily modifed to suit your needs with age differences etc. and the book has a few tips on running a game with younger players. I'm so glad i found this!"

Fourth, there's several reviews that give specific feedback about using Fire In Rivenshore to teach when it's okay to keep secrets, and when these should be discussed with adults:

"This was a good adventure to work on listening skills - trying to keep a list of tasks and the order she wanted to do them in to help the most people.
It also highlighted that we needed to discuss with her about what is ok to keep secrets about vs things that should be discussed with an adult. Amazing what a 'simple game' can make parents realize :-)"

And this review:

"6.5 year old has very much enjoyed the game - we've played 2 of the adventures so far - one of which we did one evening while on a family vacation - just had printed the adventure beforehand - handful of 6 sided dice and a very compact game to play whereever the desire (or boredom) may strike.
Simple rules, simple math, the adults have had fun, she has had fun.

Works on listening skills, critical thinking, some good math practice for the age group, and at least one of the adventures highlighted a discussion we needed to have on what kinds of things are appropriate for "keeping secrets" vs what should be discussed with an adult."

Fifthly, here's a recent - and lovely - review:

"This is a great system—not only for introducing young kids to RPGs, but also for enabling families with young kids to play RPGs together. The system is simple enough for very young children to be able to play, but has enough detail that older kids can enhance their characters' capabilities as they understand more.

All of the player characters (many fun pregenerated options are included) have a special ability. My kids have latched on to these; each is excited about their character's special strengths and functionality. The enemies also have well-concieved special abilities, so there's some exciting variety in combat even though the combat mechanic is very simple and easy for all to navigate.

The published adventures are a lot of fun, and always include enough detail to help inexperienced DM parents narrate a compelling story for the kids. Of particular note are the maps. They're done simply but very well. They're nice to print out and keep around for reuse in other adventures in other systems.

That's all enough to make this a great system; but to sweeten the deal, the prices are very reasonable."

Finally, let's talk about some criticism:

"The first adventure focuses only on combat, and is incredibly repetitive. Fight a group of rats, then another group of rats, then a third group of rats, then the rats and their king. I'm not adverse to violence (I love intriguing fights), but the system is so simple that the fights become boring very quickly on the one hand, and on the other hand: is this REALLY what RPGs are about? Kill monsters? I think we all know there are about much more than that. They are about the wonder of discovery, the relationship between characters, moral questions and problems, etc. Kids are NOT too young to deal with these issues! By focusing the adventure (and indeed, the core system) only on combat, it diminishes their potential enjoyment of the game."

This is a legitimate criticism of the first adventure; Basement O Rats.  It was the first I ever wrote for Hero Kids, and it is heavily combat-focused.  As this reviewer points out, the adventure includes four combat encounters, and only a couple of exploration elements.  While the side room does include an opportunity for role-playing, it's incumbent of the GM to create and introduce a character here; 'Old man Jenkins'...

The heavy focus on combat for this adventure was intentional, to the extent that anything I wrote that long ago was intentional.  As the intro adventure, I wanted the adventure to focus heavily on the mechanically-codified section of the game, combat, rather that on the more free-form aspects of the game, exploration and role-playing.

With an extra six-year's experience under my belt, Darkness Neath Rivenshore is somewhat of a replacement for Basement O Rats.  

Compared to Basement O Rats, Darkness Neath Rivenshore has:

• Less combat encounters
• More variety to the combat encounters
• Integrated role-playing through the conversations with Emon in the drains
• Puzzle and exploration elements integrated into the encounters (blocking gates, the spring statue, the cause of the mutations, etc)
• The option to use the adventure to explore death (from the review "Kids are NOT too young to deal with these issues!")

So, I guess if people don't like Basement O Rats, they should play Darkness Neath Rivenshore as a better representation of the role-playing experience.

And maybe I'll revise Basement O Rats in the future...

By the way, despite that reviewer's criticism, their review is still positive:

"Overall, this is a recommended purchase for any parent who wants to involve his or her kids in RPGs for the first time, but be aware you'll need to do a lot of tweaking to the adventures."

Hero Kids YouTube Actual Play - Darkness Neath Rivenshore

People who've never played RPGs before often ask, "How do you even play Hero Kids?" This is a great question.

So much of playing RPGs is learned through participation and tradition. Which makes it hard for people to get started outside of that tradition.

For those out there who want to know how to play Hero Kids, I recorded a playtest of Darkness Neath Rivenshore with my kids:

This was my first shot at recording video and audio, and comes with a bunch of embarrassing qualifications and apologies.
• The exposure fluctuates a bit at the start, I kept moving the papers.
• I read too much of the adventure text verbatim (when you're running Hero Kids it's best to internalise the gist of the text blocks rather than read them like I did).
• Dash was sniffing at the start (you can see me looking at him sternly)...  :-)
• The video gradually progresses into potato quality as we lost light (it's not terrible, but it's a bit grainy). :-)
• I forgot to use some of the monsters' special abilities...
• Any rules mistakes are all my responsibility.
• The adventure changed slightly after this paytest; I added another puzzle in the encounter with the dire rats.

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Check out the Hero Kids Complete Fantasy PDF Bundle at DriveThruRPG

Playtesting Darkness Neath Rivenshore

Thanks everyone for your feedback around the idea of having a somewhat 'mature' ending for the next Hero Kids adventure: Darkness Neath Rivenshore.

Based on your feedback, I've included the option of having alternate 'rescue' or 'ghost' paths through the adventure:

"This Hero Kids adventure includes two possible endings, one for younger kids, and another for more mature players:
•  Emon is rescued and reunited with his parents
•  Emon is a ghost who died in the well long ago

In the ‘rescue’ ending, the heroes find Emon hiding in the final room, and reunite him with his parents.  In the ‘ghost’ ending, the heroes find Emon’s bones, and take them to the cemetery to bury alongside his family."

In other news; Violet, Dash and I have been playtesting the adventure, and everything's looking great!  Stay tuned!

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Check out the Hero Kids Complete Fantasy PDF Bundle at DriveThruRPG

Downloadable Hero Kids GM Screen

Spencer over at Wisps of Time has put together a free Hero Kids gamemaster's screen AND a Google Docs version of Josiah Fiscus's encounter generator spreadsheet!

Check them out:
Hero Kids Compatible Game Master Screen

Hero Kids Random Encounter Generator

Hero Kids enthusiast and all-round spreadsheet wizard Josiah Fiscus has put together an amazing Hero Kids random encounter generator:
Hero Kids - Random Encounter Generator

The generator is pretty straightforward, but has deep underlying sophistication. It basically reverse-engineers my difficulty tuning for Hero Kids encounters, based on number of heroes and the type of encounter.

The generator allows you to plug in a few settings, and then gives you an approriate encounter, using creatures from the Hero Kids Monster Compendium. The settings are:
• Location
• Number of heroes
• Desired difficulty
• Type of encounter (normal or boss battle)

Here are some examples:

Also, Adam Bragg has put together a blog post at Spiralbound Studios that demonstrates how to use Josiah's random encounter generator with the Hero Kids Monster Compendium to quick generate an adventure:
An Endless Supply of Adventures for Hero Kids

If you don't have it, you can get the Hero Kids Monster Compendium here:
Hero Kids - Fantasy Expansion - Monster Compendium

Hero Kids Review Roundup...

It's about time I posted some of the Hero Kids reviews that have been popping up around the Internets:

Tribality: Games Change Lives: Hero Kids RPG for Ages 4-10
"Hero Kids is an elegant system with straight-forward mechanics that kids from 4-10 can grasp.  The game uses 6-sided dice and a few characteristics that are represented visually: Melee, Ranged, Magic, and Defense.  So if you have a youngster you want to introduce to roleplaying games earlier than age 10, do yourself a favor and pick up everything Hero Kids.  You won’t regret it."

Review(ish) Session Report: Hero Kids – Escape from the Ghost Pirates
"Lately I’ve been trying to get my closest family interested in role-playing games.  Hitherto without any real significant success.  During our last session of Hero Kids, however, something extraordinary happened."

"I described the (ship from Escape From the Ghost Pirates) where the characters now found themselves in: heavy cannons, cannon balls, some rope and lots of crates and barrels.  This is the moment something clicked in the mind of my players and they suddenly began to actively interact with their surroundings.  They began to search the ship, discovering things and, most importantly taking advantage of it for both role-playing and for combat.  They discovered that everything is allowed and that there are practically no set boundaries in role-playing games.  "

"I recommend Hero Kids for all adults that would like to introduce kids to fantasy gaming generally, and fantasy role-playing games specifically, but skip Basement O’ Rats.  Go straight to any of the other adventures in the Hero Kids-line and you should be set."

My Hero Kids and Their First RPG Session
"I recently introduced my board game loving boys, Josh (11 years old) and Evan (9 years old), to role-playing games.  It was a fantastic experience that I wanted to describe in my blog.

Hero Kids has several great aspects that I thought would appeal to my boys. First there is VERY little math.  For most actions instead of doing addition or subtraction you roll dice and take the highest number.  REALLY simple.  If you are better at something you roll more dice.  I also thought that Hero Kids was very intuitive to pick up but still has a surprising amount of flexibility.  I felt that I could EASILY modify the system to play superheroes, science fiction stars, cartoon characters, or anything my boys might want to play.  When I asked the boys they decided that they wanted to play heroes like Zelda.  That means epic high fantasy… easy."

...The next room featured a puzzle with a miner caught in a sinkhole.  In the first room they had collected a rope.  Even though it took some prompting by Don they eventually figured it out and saved the miner.  It was a nice little problem to resolve.

Overall I know the session went really well.  How do I know?  After the session Evan asked about the village where the characters live and the underground river that they saw in the mine.  He asked if they could investigate these next time."

Hero Kids First Session
"Today, my Hero Kids players met during Club time and managed to do the following:
•   Started the adventure in a tavern
•   Accepted a call for help
•   Went into a basement and defeated a group of rats
Three cliches in one session, it's awesome. Nothing is a cliche to these kids because it's all new to them."

So far, so good! We had quite a few eager watchers during the last part of the game as students came in from break-time. I'm almost disappointed I'm on leave for the next few weeks so that we can't carry on with Hero Kids right away."

Hero Kids: An RPG for Little Role Players
"Like any good fantasy setting, Hero Kids starts in the local tavern with an introductory adventure called Basement o’ Rats, which asks our wee heroes to venture into the tavern basement to save their buddy Roger (of course he has the name Roger) from rats the size of those giant stuffed teddy bears they sell at Costco.  The adventure was a smash hit and my daughter immediately asked if we could run it again."

Hero Kids is great fun. She loves it and I love the time with her."

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Here's the link to DriveThruRPG:

DriveThruRPG - Hero Forge Games

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).