Hero Designer 6th Edition - Hero Games Company

6 ■ Using Hero Designer Hero Designer 6th Edition
TOTAL POINTS IN
SIxTH EDITION
HERO System Sixth
Edition changed the way
that the total Character
Points available for a
character are expressed.
HERO System Fifth Edition
expressed a character’s
available points as Base
Points + Maximum
Disadvantage Points. Thus,
a 350 point superhero
would be expressed as
being built on 200 + 150.
HERO System Sixth
Edition expresses available
character points as Total
Points with a maximum
number of points in
Matching Complications.
So, a 400 point superhero
is expressed as 400 Total
Points with a maximum
of 75 points in Matching
Complications.
For HERO System Fifth
Edition templates, the
Basic Info tab has Base
Points and Max. Disad.
Points fields.
For HERO System Sixth
Edition templates, the
Basic Info tab has
instead Points and Max.
Complication Points
fields in which you enter
the Total Points and
the maximum number
of points in Matching
Complications.
Note, however, that
Hero Designer makes no
adjustments in the Points
value (that is, the Total
Points available to the
character) based on the
actual points in Matching
Complications. Therefore,
if you are building a
character that uses fewer
than the maximum
number of Complication
Points available, you
must manually lower the
value of the Points field
on the Basic Info tab
by the amount that you
are under the maximum
Complication Points. For
example, if you only use
50 points of a maximum
75 points in Matching
Complications, you would
lower the value of the
Points field by 25 points.
Loading An Existing
Character
To load a previously saved Hero Designer
character, select Open Character… from the File
menu or type Ctrl-O. A standard file selector dialog
appears. Select the file containing the character you
want to load and click Open Character to load that
file as well as the associated character template and
campaign rules.
You can also load a character that has been
recently worked on by selecting Open Recent from
the File menu which displays a sub-menu showing
the most recently worked on files. Select the file
containing the character you want to use to load
that file and the associated character template and
campaign rules.
Normally, when you load a character, all
Modifiers attached to that character’s abilities are
checked to see if they are valid based on Modifier
Intelligence (see the “Modifier Intelligence” sidebar
on page 13). You are warned of any invalid Modifiers
and the offending abilities are displayed in red on
the appropriate tab. You can change this behavior
from the Preferences dialog as described in the
“Application Preferences” section on page 33.
CHANgINg THE
CHARACTER TEMPLATE
When a character is active, its associated
template is loaded into memory. That template
remains loaded until either you change the template
associated with the active character or a character
built on another template is loaded. The currently
loaded template is shown on the status line at the
bottom of the Hero Designer window.
To change the template associated with the
current active character, select Change Current
Template from the Current Character menu. This
normally displays a sub-menu with three items:
Hero System 6th Edition Rules, Hero System 5th
Edition Rules, and Custom/Non-Standard Rules.
Selecting Hero System 6th Edition Rules
or Hero System 5th Edition Rules displays a
sub-menu showing the available Hero Designer
template. From this sub-menu, you can select
the new template to be assigned to the current
character.
Selecting Custom/Non-Standard Rules
displays a sub-menu with one item: Choose File….
Selecting that item displays the Load Template file
selector. Select the character template you want to
use and click Load Template. See the “Character
Templates” chapter on page 43 for details on creating
a template.
Once the template has been changed for a
character, a third item is added to the sub-menu:
Revert to Original Template. As the name
implies, selecting this item changes the template
for the current character to the one with which the
character was last saved (or the one with which the
character was created in the case of a character that
has not yet been saved).
ExPLORINg THE HERO
DESIgNER INTERFACE
When you have one or more characters active,
the main Hero Designer window displays a series
of tabs. Each tab represents a different section of a
typical HERO System character sheet and lets you
enter and change information about that aspect
of the character. Precisely which tabs are available
depends upon the current character template
and the current campaign rules. The standard AI,
Automation, Base, Computer, and Vehicle templates
disable the Background tab while the Equipment
tab is only available for the Normal (only for Fifth
Edition characters) and Heroic templates unless
enabled by the current campaign rules (see the
“Campaign Rules” section on page 36).