# Forum > Gaming > Roleplaying Games > D&D 5e/Next >  Everyday Heroes - Third Party 5E

## Sparky McDibben

Alright, y'all! I don't know how many of you have kids, but it's about to look like _The Shining_ up in the McDibben household. I've been up all night dealing with one particularly obstinate specimen, and now I've got to go to work in about an hour. 

The moral of the story is: Don't have kids; learn from Sparky's mistakes!

But on the upside, anybody else remember d20 Modern? Man, I loved that game, even the janky bits. I remember one monster, the roach thrall, that literally still gives me nightmares. So I was over the moon when I heard that Evil Genius games was releasing _Everyday Heroes_ next year, promising to reboot d20 Modern for 5E, and having a bunch of cinematic tie-ins for my favorite 80's action franchises (and a couple of new ones, too!). And then those schmucks dropped it on Drivethru without so much as a heads up! 

So I says to myself, "Self, we clearly need to pick this up and start reviewing it RIGHT BEFORE WE GO TO WORK ON NO SLEEP!"

And myself says back, "You're hallucinating and delusional and probably need to put down the coffee right now, Sparky."

And I says back, "WELL I [email protected] PURCHASED IT, SELF, SO SUCK IT UP! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

(I may have classed up the language a bit)

So this is my review of Everyday Heroes by Evil Genius games. I purchased the core rules today for $29.99. I will not be reviewing the cinematic adventures yet, since the only two that have been released so far are for the _Crow_ and _Escape from New York,_ neither of which I've seen because I don't like murder-goths or Kurt Russell1. I do plan to pick up the supplements for _Highlander_ and _Rambo_ next year, though, so those might be a separate review. 

At any rate, the pdf clocks in at a whopping 460 pages, or about 6.5 cents per page. Per my usual nonsense, we'll be going chapter by chapter, assuming I don't wind up in jail for reckless endangerment or hating on Kurt Russell1.

Overall, the editing, layout, and use of color are pretty good! The pdf has functional bookmarks (awesome!), but there are some weird duplicate bookmarks at the bottom that didn't link to anything; they were easy enough to delete. Another problem is the lack of a form-fillable character sheet, but my guess is that that's coming down the pike. Kum-bay-yah, Sparky. Kum-bay-yah. Alright, Evil Geniuses, y'all ain't losing points yet, but you're on THIN ICE!

The book opens with a fun foreword by Jeff Grubb (which is a nice callback to the d20 Modern inspiration), and then it does something that I think is pretty bold: it assumes you've never played an RPG before. It does the whole, "What is an RPG?" bit, followed by an example of play, a breakdown of terms and definitions, and laying out assumptions. Boy, it would make running 5E so much easier if the PHB had some of this laid out this well. Another piece that's pretty cool is that they lay out the primary changes from the 5E SRD on page 12, and I'm just going to reproduce that here:



It might be the emotional imbalance from sleep deprivation, but holy crap, that's awesome! Levels only go from 1 - 10? Core feats? No direct multiclassing, but rather it's handled through feats? Oh my God, that's going to make DMing so much friggin' easier, y'all. Like, don't get me wrong, I love high-level D&D, but it needs to be it's own thing, and not in the core rules. We are making some bold creative decisions here, y'all, and I am _here for it._ 

And that's just the introduction, guys. The spicy meatballs are yet to come. Now, I'm going to pound some more caffeine and sugar, strap myself to a four-wheeled steel-and-aluminum box powered by tiny explosions, and hurl myself at speeds mankind was never meant to achieve to either a) the Wal-Mart (for more coffee) or b) ETERNAL GLORY!!!! I'll see y'all either tomorrow or _in Hell,_ respectively. Y'all have a good day now, y'hear?

1Yeah, I said it. I FRIGGIN' SAID IT! COME AT ME, FORUMITES!!!!

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## Libertad

> The book opens with a fun foreword by Jeff Grubb (which is a nice callback to the d20 Modern inspiration), *and then it does something that I think is pretty bold: it assumes you've never played an RPG before.* It does the whole, "What is an RPG?" bit, followed by an example of play, a breakdown of terms and definitions, and laying out assumptions. Boy, it would make running 5E so much easier if the PHB had some of this laid out this well. Another piece that's pretty cool is that they lay out the primary changes from the 5E SRD on page 12, and I'm just going to reproduce that here:


It's rather amusing how common these blurbs are in non-D&D RPGs, considering how D&D is the gateway drug to the rest of the tabletop fandom.

Yes I know it's third party 5e, but your average normie browsing bookshelves won't make that connection.

I am a bit surprised how this indie studio was able to attain not one, but several licenses of popular properties.

As for the whole idea of a 5e-ified D20 Modern, I'll admit that I'm not too fond of that concept. The original D20 Modern didn't impress me and felt too unfocused while repeating the balance problems of 3rd Edition. For all I know Everyday Heroes can have a more robust and balanced system, but these days "it's a tabletop game...IN THE MODERN WORLD!" needs more bite to it.

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## Sparky McDibben

> As for the whole idea of a 5e-ified D20 Modern, I'll admit that I'm not too fond of that concept. The original D20 Modern didn't impress me and felt too unfocused while repeating the balance problems of 3rd Edition. For all I know Everyday Heroes can have a more robust and balanced system, but these days "it's a tabletop game...IN THE MODERN WORLD!" needs more bite to it.


Well, hang onto your britches, friend, 'cuz it might convince you to give it a try!  :Small Smile: 

Alright, folks, the bad news is that the car's in the shop, but the good news is that I knew the judge from AA and he cut me a deal. It's like when you put a dollar in the vending machine and the M&M's get stuck, but then you put another dollar in the vending machine and get _two_ things of M&M's, am I right?

Chapter 1 is a quick breakdown of the character creation process. It's about 12 pages long, and walks through the options easily. Basically, this game uses archetypes (which would be classes in base 5E), and classes (which would be subclasses in base 5E). Yes, that terminology is confusing. I have no idea why they named 'em that way. Basically, you have archetypes (classes!) based on your best ability score, so you have Strong heroes, Agile heroes, Tough heroes, Smart heroes, Wise heroes, and Charismatic heroes. Each class is defined by how you can use that ability to solve problems, with specific specialties cropping up in the classes (subclasses!) of which there are 20 total between the six archetypes. 

Couple of things to note right away: there's no magic in this base system, which is nice because it lets you run flat out normal characters. Also, it kinda sucks because I like magic. So I am happy and sad simultaneously, which reminds me of how I feel when watching _Serenity_ while Wash is onscreen. 



(^ That guy totally makes it, though)

So if there's no magic, what do our Smart, Wise, and Charismatic heroes have to do? Well, how 'bout you wait till we get to the archetypes chapter, _Dan??_ 

You start off with your background and a profession, then determine your ability scores, archetype and class. Finally, you equip your character and you're ready to go! You'll note, when we get to it, that backgrounds and professions all modify ability scores, so I'm not sure why they don't just start with ability scores? Somebody let me know, if the design team is reading this.

So let's start with Backgrounds (Chapter 2, for those of you playing at home). Each background is pretty close to a 5E background in function - it's what defined you before you started adventuring. However, they have considerably more mechanical heft and considerably less narrative BS. Each one gives you a half ASI, a skill or tool proficiency, some neat but not powerful equipment, and a feature that's either a) helpful in a limited situation, b) helpful in a bunch of situations, but you can only do it once per long rest, or c) a second ability or tool proficiency. 

As an aside, these are all over the place. There's literally one called "Raised by Assassins." Here's the art for it:



Yeah. That's some GRADE A NINJA PARENTING, [email protected] and I salute the artist who looked at "Raised by Assassins" and submitted that art back. Good on you, you ballsy lunatic!

Other backgrounds include Activist, Gamer (lets you re-roll a nat 1 once / long rest), Larper (advantage on Deception checks to feign death), etc. These cats know their audience. 

While the features aren't balanced at all, the gear and proficiencies generally make up for that. There are some stinkers (like Larper), but in general these kind of balance out across the board. None of the background features are the usual 5E "room-and-board" fare, and all of them are either interesting or hilarious. There's also a quick-and-dirty guide to making your own in the back of the chapter, because again, these cats seem to know their audience pretty well. In general, I approve.

Next up are Professions (Chapter 3)! Professions are your day job, and give you some additional ability score increases, some cool but not overpowered equipment, some extra proficiencies, a neat feature, and a Wealth level. So, uh, another background, basically? Well, I'm not a huge fan of the added complexity, but they do help tie the PCs to a modern setting, especially for sandbox play. 

The professions themselves are pretty easy to figure out. We can all guess what bonuses "Academia" is going to give you, for example. However, there are some real weird things going on with the Wealth levels. For example, Wealth Level 3 is defined as "upper-middle-class." It's the default for most of the professions in this book, including, but not limited to: public school teachers, ranchers, artists, paramedics, cops, and plumbers. 

Alright, look, I don't know how much this varies across the world, but in the US, some of those listed professions don't even have dental insurance, let alone be defined as "upper-middle-class." For a minute, I thought I was going to find [REDACTED] listed as a creative consultant, but that doesn't seem to be the case, so I'm not sure how they're defining "upper-middle-class" incomes. Y'all let me know if I'm off-base with this. 

Wealth levels are pretty clutch, too, since they determine what kind of stuff you can buy - we'll cover it in the Equipment chapter - so you can't really rejigger some of this stuff down, either. My guess? You'll need to work with your players to determine what's reasonable. If you're a teacher at a private school, Wealth level 3 might be appropriate. 

The professions themselves are otherwise pretty handily categorized, but this is where you'll want to start curating content for your campaign. If you want a lethal campaign about body-snatching aliens hopping around in LA, you probably don't want Dan's character to try showing up in a tank because he took "Military" for a profession. 

Finally, there's a handy guide for homebrewing professions at the end of the chapter, if you want to tailor you player's Professions to the world you have in mind. 

Alright, y'all, I have my mandatory community service now, so Imma go do that. Next time, we'll hit up Archetypes and Classes, and see what all the fuss is about!

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## Brookshw

Very excited to hear more, d20 Modern was good, had a lot of potential.

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## Sigfried Trent

> so I'm not sure why they don't just start with ability scores? Somebody let me know, if the design team is reading this.


Hey there, one of the two lead designers here. Loving the review so far!

I actually had ability scores first, but my editor thought they should come after you get the ability score adjustments. She's a long-time industry veteran who's edited a great many RPGs so I accepted her re-organization of the process. I think she felt it was better to assign scores after you knew what ability bumps you would get. Anyway, it's good to get feedback on it!  Since I'm here.....




> Yeah. That's some GRADE A NINJA PARENTING, [email protected] and I salute the artist who looked at "Raised by Assassins" and submitted that art back. Good on you, you ballsy lunatic!


I'm going to swoop in and take partial credit for that as I wrote the art order for this and got exactly what I asked for. :)  I love this artist's character work and we seem to be on the same wavelength when it comes to quirky character images.




> Alright, look, I don't know how much this varies across the world, but in the US, some of those listed professions don't even have dental insurance, let alone be defined as "upper-middle-class."


Ya, this is kind of a long story. I had written a massive professional system where each category had entry-level, intermediate, and advanced jobs with the entry-level being low pay but more ability score bumps and the advanced ones being high pay and fewer bumps. It was just too much, so the team made me shelf it and re-do them all as generic categories, which meant kind of average wealth levels for the category.  I googled a lot of median wage figures for various jobs and compared them to IRS tax brackets etc... (I have an econ degree so I get excited by that kind of thing.)  Incidentally, my complicated scheme will appear in a Kickstarter Bonus PDF eventually, but I think the decision to shelve it for the core rules was the right one.




> If you're a teacher at a private school, Wealth level 3 might be appropriate.


The median income for a public school teacher in the US is $65K plus benefits, which is more middle-middle class (though it depends on where you live). Sadly the overall US median income is $31K. The average RPG tabletop game designer... well let's just say we don't do it primarily for the money! (it's hard to actually find any statistics on that in fact)




> Alright, y'all, I have my mandatory community service now, so Imma go do that. Next time, we'll hit up Archetypes and Classes, and see what all the fuss is about!


I'm looking forward to it!

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## Kane0

> So I says to myself, "Self, we clearly need to pick this up and start reviewing it RIGHT BEFORE WE GO TO WORK ON NO SLEEP!"


I'm just here to say I f**k with this energy.

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## Brookshw

> Hey there, one of the two lead designers here. Loving the review so far!


Since you're here, do you have any plans for future design directions you can share? E.g., supernatural/magical supplements, monster supplements, etc.?

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## Sigfried Trent

> Since you're here, do you have any plans for future design directions you can share? E.g., supernatural/magical supplements, monster supplements, etc.?


Nothing is quite certain yet. We are looking at a "spiritual successor" to Urban Arcana, as that is the most requested direction from fans. We may create adventure paths under our Legendary license. We are also pursuing new licenses (those are always uncertain until a contract is signed). We also have some resource books in mind, like expanded modern equipment and a military sourcebook, but we don't know where they slot into the schedule. We will likely be kickstarting something in the spring of 2023, but exactly what is still being discussed.

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## Doug Lampert

> Next up are Professions (Chapter 3)! Professions are your day job, and give you some additional ability score increases, some cool but not overpowered equipment, some extra proficiencies, a neat feature, and a Wealth level. So, uh, another background, basically? Well, I'm not a huge fan of the added complexity, but they do help tie the PCs to a modern setting, especially for sandbox play. 
> 
> The professions themselves are pretty easy to figure out. We can all guess what bonuses "Academia" is going to give you, for example. However, there are some real weird things going on with the Wealth levels. For example, Wealth Level 3 is defined as "upper-middle-class." It's the default for most of the professions in this book, including, but not limited to: public school teachers, ranchers, artists, paramedics, cops, and plumbers. 
> 
> Alright, look, I don't know how much this varies across the world, but in the US, some of those listed professions don't even have dental insurance, let alone be defined as "upper-middle-class." For a minute, I thought I was going to find Paul Ryan listed as a creative consultant, but that doesn't seem to be the case, so I'm not sure how they're defining "upper-middle-class" incomes. Y'all let me know if I'm off-base with this. 
> 
> Wealth levels are pretty clutch, too, since they determine what kind of stuff you can buy - we'll cover it in the Equipment chapter - so you can't really rejigger some of this stuff down, either. My guess? You'll need to work with your players to determine what's reasonable. If you're a teacher at a private school, Wealth level 3 might be appropriate.





> The median income for a public school teacher in the US is $65K plus benefits, which is more middle-middle class (though it depends on where you live). Sadly the overall US median income is $31K. The average RPG tabletop game designer... well let's just say we don't do it primarily for the money! (it's hard to actually find any statistics on that in fact)


I'll add, the private school I went to paid about 2/3 what a public school in the same area did. But they got their choice of teachers.

My mother taught both private and public schools, public paid more. But she shifted from public school to private and never looked back. She got even less than the school I went to paid as a private school teacher, but she liked the job a lot more (and she had the advantage that her income was always suplementary to my father's).

Private schools don't pay more than public, IME they don't even pay as much, because most of the best teachers LIKE having students who pay attention and administrators and parents who support the staff on matters of classroom disciline. Also, smaller classroom sizes and fewer classes to teach are easy to offer benefits that improve instruction (and thus get parents willing to pay for the school) and that the teachers also love.

I could see a lower income level for private school teachers a lot easier than for public school teachers. Public school teacher is clearly an upper middle class job (unless you add a middle middle class).

Income wise, the same goes for skilled plumbers, crap working conditions, but a very good income.

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## Sparky McDibben

> Very excited to hear more, d20 Modern was good, had a lot of potential.


I hear you there, brother. From what I'm seeing, this product delivers on a lot of the inherent potential of the source material.




> Hey there, one of the two lead designers here. Loving the review so far!


This is the second time this has happened, so I don't know why I'm surprised. But I am! I'm glad to get your feedback on the text and hopefully this is good (if slightly insane) fun!  :Small Big Grin: 




> I'm going to swoop in and take partial credit for that as I wrote the art order for this and got exactly what I asked for. :)  I love this artist's character work and we seem to be on the same wavelength when it comes to quirky character images.


That's outstanding!




> Ya, this is kind of a long story. I had written a massive professional system where each category had entry-level, intermediate, and advanced jobs with the entry-level being low pay but more ability score bumps and the advanced ones being high pay and fewer bumps. It was just too much, so the team made me shelf it and re-do them all as generic categories, which meant kind of average wealth levels for the category.  I googled a lot of median wage figures for various jobs and compared them to IRS tax brackets etc... (I have an econ degree so I get excited by that kind of thing.)  Incidentally, my complicated scheme will appear in a Kickstarter Bonus PDF eventually, but I think the decision to shelve it for the core rules was the right one.


Ah, I see. I was going to check and see if these categories change if you use balance sheet equity as the chief measure of wealth, rather than gross income (because, weirdly, I also have an economics degree! NERD SOLIDARITY!!!) before I realized that any measure of wealth would have weird outliers, and we'd just wind up relitigating this conversation with different examples. For what it's worth, I think that "complicated scheme" would be a ton of fun for me!  :Small Big Grin: 

(I also redacted Paul Ryan's name in my comment up above, because on a re-read that line felt unnecessarily b*tchy and I'm sorry I put it in).




> I'm just here to say I f**k with this energy.


You're welcome! (I think?)




> Nothing is quite certain yet. We are looking at a "spiritual successor" to Urban Arcana, as that is the most requested direction from fans. We may create adventure paths under our Legendary license. We are also pursuing new licenses (those are always uncertain until a contract is signed). We also have some resource books in mind, like expanded modern equipment and a military sourcebook, but we don't know where they slot into the schedule. We will likely be kickstarting something in the spring of 2023, but exactly what is still being discussed.


Oh my GOD +1 to the Urban Arcana book request, please. If y'all let me play Harry Dresden in D&D I will give y'all so much money and also maybe my second-born child (assuming my wife is OK with it). 




> I'll add, the private school I went to paid about 2/3 what a public school in the same area did. But they got their choice of teachers. [snip] Income wise, the same goes for skilled plumbers, crap working conditions, but a very good income.


I asked y'all to let me know if I was wrong, and y'all did! Thanks for the insights, Messrs Trent and Lampert, and consider my gripes withdrawn.

Okay y'all, I've been reading this book for like a week now, and campaign ideas are blooming like weeds in my brain. I'm never going to get the chance to run most of them, so for each post going forward, I'd like to quickly sum up a campaign idea up front, just as a fun creative exercise:

*Free Campaign Idea:* A group of skydiving tourists are trapped on a remote island by pirates and corporate malefactors, and must work together to find a way off. 

Inspirations: _X1: The Isle of Dread, Farcry 3,_ and _Jurassic Park._

How I'd Do It: Take a hex map of the Isle of Dread (see here for one version). Key it with a bunch of ruthless modern pirates that are keeping the natives scared and a bunch of real nasty corporate geneticists (and their equally nasty mercs) empowered. Nobody leaves without first dealing with these pirates and their multitudinous scattered bases. Turns out, the corporate folks are actually close to a cure for various kinds of cancer, but only because they've been using kidnapped travelers for horrific human testing. Of course, being psychopath geneticists, they have all kinds of horrific alien monsters hidden away that they can unleash on the players. (You can also come up with a way better moral dilemma, too; I stumbled into this while sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot waiting for my kids to finish telling me their version of _Jurassic Park)._ 

Alright y'all! Now, we're getting into the NITTY _and_ the GRITTY details of any d20 system: the archetypes (classes!). 

There are a few differences between 5E and _Everyday Heroes,_ though. For one, you're getting Feats at every even level. These feats can be two minor Feats (a half feat without the ASI part, essentially, or a +1 to an ability score), or a major Feat (your Great Weapon Master type stuff). All multiclassing feats are major feats. 

Secondly, you get your class (subclass!) right from first level (which is nice, because remember we only have 10 levels to play!). 

Thirdly, you also get a defense bonus as defined by your class. In this system, armor doesn't actually make you harder to hit; your AC is determined by your class and your signature ability score. So a Strong hero would calculate their Defense (AC) as 10 + Strength modifier + their Defense bonus (from their class). Defense bonuses are calculated in three different ways, depending on your class. Don't worry, though, you don't have to do any math; it's right there on the class chart. But it seems that classes that focus on resisting things (Wise and Tough heroes) have Defense scores equal to their proficiency bonus. Most other classes have Defense scores that are equal to their proficiency bonus minus one. And Smart heroes get the shaft a lil' bit, since theirs is calculated as proficiency bonus minus two. 

(We'll go over armor when we hit equipment, but it gets pretty interesting!)

As you can see, this much more strongly bakes in the effects of the archetype (class!) choice into the system, which was already pretty strong in 5E. In _Everyday Heroes,_ darn near everything keys off your class type (except equipment). I actually like this. By stripping out equipment as an input from AC calculations, we've allowed the PCs to still be heroic without having to run around in IBA all day. And by replacing multiclassing with feat choices, we've reduced a lot of the "baggage" from multiclassing, allowing PCs to get the feature they actually want from another class without a lot other nonsense. 

So what all can you play? Well, let's find out:



I really like this approach - it's relatively simple, clean, and evocative while avoiding all but the most hair-trigger analysis paralysis, much like core 5E. So let's break this down with two archetypes: Strong, and Smart. These are on opposite ends of the game's complexity spectrum, so as to give y'all a good baseline for how complex it actually is.

So, Strong heroes get this for base progression:



Pretty simple, right? The base archetype (class) fits on one page; its three classes (subclasses) are a two-page spread each (one page for art, fluff, and proficiencies, another page for the actual abilities). And those three classes are loaded, dealing out eight to ten special abilities across five levels (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th). These also tend to be more varied than a basic fighter, too - one, the MMA Fighter class, lets you leverage a whole bunch of control maneuvers to trip, grapple, knock prone, deal auto-damage, and eventually just KO someone you have grappled. It's pretty sweet, y'all. 

And then there's Smart heroes, who get this base progression:



Lil' bit more complicated. So, the Smart hero's whole deal is out-thinking the competition; I'll let you all recover from your shock at that announcement. So, instead of a wizard getting spells, Smart heroes get Plans. 



_Pictured: The Smart hero right before initiative is rolled._

There are several plans that any Smart hero can use, and each class (subclass!) has a few that are unique to it, too. This means that the Smart hero base archetype takes up four pages, and the classes take up between four and five pages each. The plans themselves are quite fun - each one uses a Genius point (which recovers on a long rest, so you really need to be careful about how you spend them). However, the plans also scale with your level, so if you were a Scientist class PC, you could use the "Can of Whoop As$" plan (that is a literal plan in this book and I love it _so much_) to buff an ally. Because the plan scales up, you're doing way more for that ally at level 9 than you were at level 1. However, you'll never have more than 7 plans that you can use per day (because you never have more than 7 Genius), and you can never know more than 10 Plans (and each class gets access to 14 total plans, so you'll always have to be making choices about which ones you think are worth it). From my reading...I can see being able to use all of these in a base D&D adventure? So, yeah, you'll have some tradeoffs to make, which I think is awesome.

Regardless, none of these will be challenging for a veteran 5E player, to say nothing of a Pathfinder player. Honestly, between the level cap and the simplicity of the actual class, I might be able to get my players to take a 4 minute turn. 



After the archetypes and classes, we get Chapter 5: Finishing Touches! This is a nice little eight-page chapter that really spells out a bunch of stuff that has been covered, but could have easily been missed. For example, if you're wondering what your passive Perception is, it's here! And how you calculate attack rolls and weapon damage. And then they go into the stuff about your persona - like what is your motivation! That's outstanding, because while the PHB has this a little in ideals, in my experience, these get written down and forgotten about after like session three. But these include advice for not just general motivation options, but advice on how to tie them into the world. You also have attachments,  guidance on how to write a ONE-PARAGRAPH BACKSTORY (oh sweet Jesus, thank you!), a core belief, and virtues, flaws and quirks. All of these are great, and my only real problem is that there isn't more written on them (Damn you, page count gods!!!)

Alright, y'all. Next time, we get into the Equipment chapter! Prepare for BOOM!!!!

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## Libertad

Interesting to hear that the Smart classes are the pseudo-casters of Everyday Heroes.

What interesting tricks do the Charming classes have up their sleeves? Do they also have pseudo-spells, or are they more focused around using their rhetoric to buff, debuff, and control others like some kind of Enchanter?

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## Brookshw

> Nothing is quite certain yet. We are looking at a "spiritual successor" to Urban Arcana, as that is the most requested direction from fans. We may create adventure paths under our Legendary license. We are also pursuing new licenses (those are always uncertain until a contract is signed). We also have some resource books in mind, like expanded modern equipment and a military sourcebook, but we don't know where they slot into the schedule. We will likely be kickstarting something in the spring of 2023, but exactly what is still being discussed.


Sounds good, I'll look forward to seeing what you cook up. Incidentally, if you wanted to do something along the lines of the D20 Dark Matter setting, ya know, cults, x files, cryptozoology, Lovecraft, I wouldn't say no!

Incidentally, some unsolicited feed back about a modern equipment book? I see a lot of companies do this, and just about every one of them puts out table after table, page after page, of practically identical guns. Booooring. Usually results in people just buying the best, and the other 99.9% of the book being useless. Please don't go that route on an equipment book.

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## Sigfried Trent

> What interesting tricks do the Charming classes have up their sleeves? Do they also have pseudo-spells, or are they more focused around using their rhetoric to buff, debuff, and control others like some kind of Enchanter?


Charming heroes get "Influence Dice", very similar to superiority dice. They go up in number and dice size as they level. They are spent on Tricks, which are selectable class talents. The tricks for each Charming hero are based on their class focus.
Duelist -> Melee Combat
Icon -> Showing Off (mix of combat and social)
Leader -> Supporting other heroes
Manipulator -> Social control / hindering enemies

Smart heroes don't get a lot of talents outside of their plans, but the charming heroes all have some core talents in addition to their tricks.

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## Sigfried Trent

> Incidentally, some unsolicited feed back about a modern equipment book? I see a lot of companies do this, and just about every one of them puts out table after table, page after page, of practically identical guns. Booooring. Usually results in people just buying the best, and the other 99.9% of the book being useless. Please don't go that route on an equipment book.


Ya, that would be boring to write also!  I had to cut back on it for the core book, but my interest lies in talking about the history and quirks of real weapons, so I'd probably lean into that for an equipment book.

It would also have alternate rules systems for greater detail if someone really wants to get into the weeds, since I'd imagine that's the kind of person who buys a big equipment book. :) 

I'd also consider taking a closer look at military vehicle combat.  The rules in the core book can handle them, but it was created more for car chases than tanks and warplanes battling each other.

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## paladinn

This is a bit off-topic; but if anyone is interested in a "modern" 5e, I'd like to recommend Amazing Adventures 5e by Troll Lord Games.  The original AA uses the same Siege engine as Castles & Crusades (which is great, btw).  But TLG has recently adapted AA to use the 5e model.  And where the original is mostly pulp-oriented, the 5e version is quite modern-ish.  And there are copious suggestions in using AA5e along with D&D5e.  That alone caught my fancy; I love me some cross-genre stuff!

Very recommended!

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## Sparky McDibben

> Charming heroes get "Influence Dice", very similar to superiority dice. They go up in number and dice size as they level. They are spent on Tricks, which are selectable class talents. The tricks for each Charming hero are based on their class focus.
> Duelist -> Melee Combat
> Icon -> Showing Off (mix of combat and social)
> Leader -> Supporting other heroes
> Manipulator -> Social control / hindering enemies
> 
> Smart heroes don't get a lot of talents outside of their plans, but the charming heroes all have some core talents in addition to their tricks.


Yep! All the "mental" archetypes have some kind of meta resource they can spend (Genius, Influence, or Focus for the Wise characters). Notably, only Smart heroes are a long rest class; everyone else gets their stuff back on a short rest. 




> Ya, that would be boring to write also!  I had to cut back on it for the core book, but my interest lies in talking about the history and quirks of real weapons, so I'd probably lean into that for an equipment book.
> 
> It would also have alternate rules systems for greater detail if someone really wants to get into the weeds, since I'd imagine that's the kind of person who buys a big equipment book. :) 
> 
> I'd also consider taking a closer look at military vehicle combat.  The rules in the core book can handle them, but it was created more for car chases than tanks and warplanes battling each other.


Well, we're already giving unsolicited feedback, so screw it, here's some more. :) I'm not actually that thrilled with equipment books, to be honest. I'd actually prefer less "equipment" in a military book, and more "where and how we can use it." The only real equipment I think we need are ways to modify weapons systems (some of which you already have in here and that we're going to cover today), and maybe some of the more exotic ammunition types? Something like dragonsbreath rounds would be fun, but honestly the core book has me covered. Now, if you give my players the tools to create and run their own mercenary unit, and give me the tools to build a war zone for them to run their missions in, and a bunch of different factions and tools I can use to populate it...now we're talking some value for money.




> This is a bit off-topic; but if anyone is interested in a "modern" 5e, I'd like to recommend Amazing Adventures 5e by Troll Lord Games.  The original AA uses the same Siege engine as Castles & Crusades (which is great, btw).  But TLG has recently adapted AA to use the 5e model.  And where the original is mostly pulp-oriented, the 5e version is quite modern-ish.  And there are copious suggestions in using AA5e along with D&D5e.  That alone caught my fancy; I love me some cross-genre stuff!
> 
> Very recommended!


I actually own both of these rulesets, and I think I'd use _Everyday Heroes_ to run modern. _Amazing Adventures_ is a neat system, but it leans too far into pulp and noir tropes (a lot which you can see in the microfiction they have scattered throughout), which limits its usefulness. The gonzo high-weirdness Brotherhood of William St. John time-traveling ninja nonsense is great, but I prefer a ruleset that takes a more flexible approach to modern genre conventions, and I don't think AA does that. 

Alright folks, here's the free campaign idea for today:

*Free Campaign Idea:* A gate to a high-fantasy appears (where the hell the DM wants it to) in our world, causing dragons, monsters, and chaos to spill out. The PCs are part of a UN special observation group, sent through to explore, report back, and stabilize the region on the other side of the gate. They battle dragons, rescue princesses, and cross swords with the sinister Sorcerers of the Shore, thwarting their attempts to rewrite reality. 

Inspirations: _Gate, MASH, Escaflowne, D&D_ meets the _A-Team._

How I'd Do It: Set up a sandbox, populate it with a bunch of factions and super-powered monsters, and then drop the Gate smack in the middle of it. If the PCs have questions about wild and crazy stuff, like "We need 35 pallets of low-grade fertilizer and a box of rubber bands!" I'd just say there's an abandoned Wal-Mart near the Gate in our world, and roll a resource die whenever they needed to raid it. 

And on a final note, you remember how I said there wasn't a form-fillable character sheet? There is! It's up on DriveThru and I found it the other night. So hurray! The designers are off of that thin ice!

Now, on with the review!!!

We begin today with a delightful visit to the town of Boomsville, population: Screw You, They All Exploded. Yes, friends, it's the Equipment chapter! Also known as chapter 6 if you're basic like me. This opens with a brief conversation around Wealth, which ranges from 0 (broke as hell) to 6 (Bond villain). PCs can only reach as high as Wealth 5 (multimillionaire, or what we might call, "Zuckerberg Lite"), but the designers at least give you the option to start thinking about what's next for your PCs once they hit level 10. This is way better than creating a character's balance sheet or doing their taxes (OK, it's better for most people; I kind of want to do my hero's taxes), because it abstracts value into a simple metric that's basically your 7th ability score. The designers also give us guidance for how the DM should adjudicate Wealth checks (taking into account price and access - your snotty rich kid is not going to be able to snag military grade weaponry without doing some legwork), and noting that Wealth can fluctuate over the course of a campaign, even going to zero if the villains pull off a really nasty maneuver (while implying that the PCs should have the opportunity to steal it all back, naturally).

Now, before we get into it, I want to note something that some folks are going to take issue with: abstraction. This game is not concerned with tracking each and every item on your character sheet; it abstracts a lot into just "stuff." In fact, that's the first thing we open with in equipment proper is "stuff" which comes in three flavors: bag stuff, car stuff, and pocket stuff. Basically, if it's something a reasonable person would carry in a backpack or purse, it's bag stuff. If it's something a reasonable person would have in their car, it's car stuff. If you are unsure what constitutes a reasonable person, the game gives you several examples. And no, none of them are Bat-a-rangs.

After that, we get into equipment packs, which are thematic combinations of gear that have been set up for each archetype. These include Clothes (thematic apparel suitable for a given character type, like how the Bodyguard Pack has "Dark 3-piece suit, dress shoes, concealed holster, earpiece"), Gear (useful items that might add to the character), Vehicle, Weapons, and Armor as sub-headings. Want to play a greaser? Take the Badas$ Pack and we're off the races! I also like how they've narrowed some options down - the "Riot Control Pack" only covers on-duty cops, for example, so your character isn't running around in a police cruiser in their off time. 

After that, we get into specialized kits, which are basically artisan's tools except way fancier. The designers also continue to show some awesome layout decisions in that each kit has a fluff box that describes what's in it (so what's actually _in_ a modern burglar's kit?) and then some of them have italicized sections below them that call out what effect the tools have on game mechanics. So a burglar's kit has no mechanics related to it, but a climber's kit gives advantage to Athletics checks made when rappelling and climbing. They also call out where these tools are required to make a check. So if you want to repair an engine but don't have mechanics tools? Tough noogies, sonny Jim. These are always going to be a judgment call, especially if you have a mechanic playing at the table who can come up with a reason they don't need mechanics tools to work on that engine ("Well, shoot, if the radiator line's punctured, cain't I just patch with a piece of the spare tire and epoxy?"). So that's always going to require some part of the DM's judgment, but I think establishing a baseline of what can be used where is quite useful.

And after all that, we get to the "How stuff works" section. This explains a few changes the designers have made to the weapons and gear systems. For starters, everything now has Bulk. You can carry personally up to 5 + Strength modifier in Bulk. If you go over your limit, you're Encumbered (new condition), and if you double your Bulk, you're Restrained. The good news is that if you go over, you can put your excess stuff in a storage space (car, backpack, etc).  And just note what's stored where. The Bulk rules are like four paragraphs, not counting the examples of what constitutes a Bulk 1 item, etc. It's simple, effective, and way easier than adding up every flipping gold piece in your inventory. Good job!

Next up is armor. Armor in EH is kind of novel - it only applies vs attacks that would drop you to zero. So it's basically a weird _death ward._ Each piece of armor has an Armor Value, and each weapon has a Penetration Value. If the weapon can penetrate the armor, the armor doesn't help, and the lethal attack succeeds. But if the Armor Value is higher than the penetration, you make an armor saving throw (d20 + proficiency if you are proficient with that kind of armor) vs a DC 10. On a success, you take no damage, but your armor is damaged (disadvantage on armor saves until you get it replaced). On a failure, you take full damage. So a lucky player could use armor to survive a really bad situation and make it through. Shields work the same way, but tend to have much lower Armor Values (and thus are easier to shoot through) and also provide cover (between half and full depending on context). 

Armors have a few properties, mostly covering if they slow you down or only apply vs one kind of damage.

And now we get into the weapons. Now, I have a single complaint about the weapons, and that's how many new properties there are, many of which cover only one kind of weapon. Aquatic, for example, only impacts the harpoon gun, and Blinding only affects pepper spray. There are a total of 28 weapon properties, versus 11 in the 5E PHB.I think a few of these properties could have been simply put into the weapon description, or covered with the "Special" property. My guess is that these are spelled out this way because they'll be referred to in subsequent supplements. Unfortunately, it does make the core system a little janky if my players want to get crazy with their loadouts. On the other hand, if my players do want to get pepper spray, at least I have solid guidance for how to adjudicate that, so maybe it evens out. 

The gear is broken out into four different categories: Basic (everyone has access), Advanced (about 50% have access), Improvised (about 50% have access), Historical and Military (very dependent on your background, profession, and class choices).

Sparky's rule of thumb:

Basic Equipment: Stuff you can find at a Wal-Mart
Advanced Equipment: Stuff you'll need to get from specialty stores or online
Improvised Equipment: Stuff you're using in a way contrary to its intended design (you beautiful psychopath)
Historical / Military: Stuff that comes from extremely specialized or restricted vendors

There's a bunch going on with the gear, and I think this is where "Shopping" players are going to get analysis paralysis. The good news is that once you get past just how many options there are, each option is pretty easy to use at the table. Everything you need is right on the table, and translates pretty well to the character sheet they've got set up. This is also probably why they set up those kits at the front. I'd probably make my players use those to start and then let them slowly expand until they find the murder-implement that's _just_ right for their blackened little hearts. 

Fortunately, the designers seem to have said, "Aw, screw it!" when they got to improvised equipment. Here's the improvised equipment chart:



That's 1) delightfully whimsical, and 2) very easy to run. All I have to do is ask, "How big is this thing?" and "Is it part of the environment or something that I can pick up and use?" Objects are stuff in the environment that you can use against someone (bookshelves, toilets, fire doors, etc.), and things are stuff you can pick up and use as a weapon (broken glass, bicycles, liquor bottles, soldering irons, etc.). I know the distinction between "object" and "thing" is going to sound hella arbitrary to most folks, but I love that it legitimizes in the rules set that I can use the environment to hurt people, and gives me the expectation of how much damage that wood chipper would do.

The military equipment section is like four pages long of murder-y goodness. It's just the right amount of abstraction to let the DM answer "What do I find on the bodies of the soldiers who look suspiciously like they were murdered by werewolves?" without getting into Brookshw's point upthread about the difference between a TEC-9 and an Uzi. Well done!

Next up, we have a section of Equipment called, I kid you not, "Everything Else." It's all your non-combat stuff...which is why it starts off with...ammunition? 

(It's entirely possible the designers have a different definition of "non-combat" than I do  :Small Smile:  )

Anyway, this gives you a bunch of different kinds of stuff that you can use, from Armor-Piercing ammunition, to an integrated grenade launcher, to a toy robot. It answers a bunch of different questions, like "how much stuff can a duffel bag hold?" (8 Bulk in one hand), "how do I clone someone's keycard?" (use a sniffer and a cloner, both covered in this chapter), and even "how hard is it to get out of zip ties?" (DC 20 Strength check). Then we get into specialty goods (like caltrops) and sporting goods (like parachutes, bear traps, and personal submersibles). 

And now, we get into Vehicles. This is a whole section that I'm going to reserve judgment on until I've actually used it, but at first it looks simple and interesting. Each vehicle has three stats: Strength (top speed and acceleration), Dexterity (handling and maneuverability), and Constitution (general toughness), plus Armor Value (to see if someone can shoot through it). There are also 16 properties for vehicles, but most of them are common sense: Medium / Large / Huge / Gargantuan all refer to vehicle size, and trains get the "Railed" property, which means you can't shoot out the tires. Because trains don't have tires. 

Ordinarily, I'd give the designers crap for this, but a) vehicles are kind of unbroken ground in 5E, and b) this game was designed to be run by 10 year-olds, so being very clear on this front is good. 

The thing I will give them crap for is that "Cop Tires / Cop Suspension / Cop Brakes" SOMEHOW DIDN'T MAKE IT INTO THE PROPERTIES LIST. 



How y'all gonna be hatin' on Blues Brothers??? This is how classic cinema dies, not with a bang, but with a whimper...

They do have a section on law enforcement vehicles (which are mostly regular vehicles + the Bulletproof property), and military vehicles, and a whole section on water- and aircraft, complete with integrated weaponry (so you know what that big tank gun does) for the military vehicles and suggested mounted weaponry.

Finally, we close out with "Useful Places." This is only a few pages long but is probably one of the most useful parts of the book, in my opinion. It gives players a goal to work toward: want to be an awesome artist? You're gonna need to get yourself a studio! Are you a secret agent? Boy, a safe house would sure be handy to have, wouldn't it?

This gives concrete guidance to the DM and the player for how they can accomplish these. I love these; they remind me of the Chronicles of Darkness backgrounds, which were one of the things I loved the most about those books!

So, we've covered a LOT. The Equipment chapter's 29 pages long, making it one of the longer chapters in the book, and it has a ton going on, from new properties, new items, new gear, and a bunch of new mechanical interactions that will come up in combat. In my opinion, it's also where a modern game lives or dies. Taking all the complexity of the modern world and shrinking it down to something the DM can actually run? That's hard, and effort shown here is good work, finding a solid level of abstraction and sticking with it. I've noted some issues I've had with it, and I look forward to conversation about them, but on the whole, this is well done!

Next time, we'll close out the character chapters with Feats! But for now, ol' Sparky needs to Google if you can actually buy a wingsuit online. If you can...well, I might have some new New Year's resolutions!

----------


## Brookshw

> It would also have alternate rules systems for greater detail if someone really wants to get into the weeds, since I'd imagine that's the kind of person who buys a big equipment book. :)


Rail systems, various ammo types, scopes, other peripherals, that sort of thing? I could see my players looking at that.




> I'd also consider taking a closer look at military vehicle combat.  The rules in the core book can handle them, but it was created more for car chases than tanks and warplanes battling each other.


You have my attention, and I'd encourage you to go further and propose equipment for a variety of game types. For example, spy gear for that type of game, even build your own guidance for people to create their own melon baller/missle launchers; sci-fi gear for something semi futuristic, e.g, cyberware, nano machines/devices; gear for various environments like deep sea. 

Okay, tall order, I get it. Something flexible and diverse would, for me, be much more attractive. Mostly I just don't need another Modern Weapon Locker, or Ultramodern Firearms D20, collecting dust on my shelf.

----------


## animorte

> Hey there, one of the two lead designers here. Loving the review so far!


Can I just say how effin cool this is?

*Spoiler: Unhelpful Responses!*
Show




> The moral of the story is: Don't have kids; learn from Sparky's mistakes!


That sleep thing is elusive with them around, isnt it? (I have 3, all under the age of 5.)



> But on the upside, anybody else remember d20 Modern?


I never had the pleasure, but:



> We are making some bold creative decisions here, y'all, and I am _here for it._


Thus far, Im right with you!



> Couple of things to note right away: there's no magic in this base system, which is nice because it lets you run flat out normal characters. Also, it kinda sucks because I like magic.


I mean, it _is_ called Everyday Heroes. Magic is, like, the only thing Ive discovered we view differently. You love your Wizards and I love my Sorcerers. Neither of us cares for the other, at all.



> So if there's no magic, what do our Smart, Wise, and Charismatic heroes have to do? Well, how 'bout you wait till we get to the archetypes chapter, _Dan??_


Sorry buddy, Im with Dan on this one.



> Good on you, you ballsy lunatic!
> 
> These cats know their audience.


Oh man, thats funny!



> Next up are Professions (Chapter 3)!


Overall, this kind of reminds me of the Strixhaven Extracurriculars/Jobs I talked about in your social structures thread.



> I'm just here to say I f**k with this energy.


I second this!



> Alright y'all! Now, we're getting into the NITTY _and_ the GRITTY details of any d20 system: the archetypes (classes!).


Dan and I have waited long enough. Actually I didnt because I showed up to the party super late. Thats probably the end of my sympathy for Dan though.



> In _Everyday Heroes,_ darn near everything keys off your class type (except equipment). I actually like this.


Definitely getting behind this!



> So what all can you play? Well, let's find out:


This too. I quite like this spread.



> The base archetype (class) fits on one page; its three classes (subclasses) are a two-page spread each (one page for art, fluff, and proficiencies, another page for the actual abilities). And those three classes are loaded, dealing out eight to ten special abilities across five levels (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th).


Whats this? Organized? Ill have to see for myself.



> But these include advice for not just general motivation options, but advice on how to tie them into the world.


You all know how much I love that _motivation_ word by now!  :Small Big Grin: 




> I'm not actually that thrilled with equipment books, to be honest. I'd actually prefer less "equipment" in a military book, and more "where and how we can use it."


Absolutely this. Ive never gotten one before, but I certainly could!



> And on a final note, you remember how I said there wasn't a form-fillable character sheet? There is!


Thats really good to know. Even though I have very recently mentioned never using them, its still a very good reference.



> This game is not concerned with tracking each and every item on your character sheet; it abstracts a lot into just "stuff."


Im ok with this.



> I think establishing a baseline of what can be used where is quite useful.


I sincerely hope this is a full on design goal. I love this sentiment and its honestly one of the most valuable tools in game design (from my personal, non-designer, experience).



> And after all that, we get to the "How stuff works" section.


Look what we have here!  :Small Tongue: 



> at least I have solid guidance for how to adjudicate that, so maybe it evens out.


Leaves less to the imagination, but also less ways to abuse said imagination.



> The gear is broken out into four different categories:


I really like this.



> That's 1) delightfully whimsical, and 2) very easy to run.


Two of the most important rules of gaming!  :Small Smile: 



> Next up, we have a section of Equipment called, I kid you not, "Everything Else."


I like these people already.



> Each vehicle has three stats plus Armor Value


I havent seen vehicle stats before, but this looks exactly how I would format it.



> Finally, we close out with "Useful Places." This is only a few pages long but is probably one of the most useful parts of the book, in my opinion.


Really glad to see where this is going.



> Okay, tall order, I get it. Something flexible and diverse would, for me, be much more attractive.


I second this.

----------


## Sparky McDibben

> Rail systems, various ammo types, scopes, other peripherals, that sort of thing? I could see my players looking at that.


Actually, all of that's already in the Core Rules!  :Small Smile: 




> Okay, tall order, I get it. Something flexible and diverse would, for me, be much more attractive. Mostly I just don't need another Modern Weapon Locker, or Ultramodern Firearms D20, collecting dust on my shelf.


Woe betide anyone who puts "Ultramodern" on an RPG supplement - that nonsense was out of date a full month before it hit shelves!

*Free Campaign Idea:* A crack team of professional thieves, occultists, and archaeologists race around the world, stealing magical and cursed relics from private stores and museums and either repatriating them to the people who can handle them (in most cases, their native cultures), or destroying them outright. 

Inspirations: _Indiana Jones_ but in reverse, _Leverage, The Librarians._

How I'd Do It: Basic set up is monster of the week with occasional breaks for character development, or when trouble follows them home. Use the tools in Emmy Allen's fantastic _Esoteric Enterprises_ for DM-facing procedural generation.

Alright, friends, let's keep this train moving with Feats! The last chapter in the character options section, Feats is 16 pages long, and breaks down feats in three tasty flavors: Basic, Advanced, and ...



(That says "Multiclass," in case link rot has set in).

Of these, there are two main differentiations - minor and major. So, every even level (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10), you can select either two minor feats or one major feat. The minor feats do stuff like:
+1 to an ability score or to WealthGain a proficiencyCarry more stuffReload fasterRun fasterCatch and throw back stuff in combat
And the major feats do stuff like:
Gain the Lucky featMulticlass (all multiclass feats are Major)Do that one Indiana Jones thing where he shoots like three guys through each otherGain the Tough feat
I'm going reserve judgment on these until I've actually played with some of them, but the basic premise seems sound. Note that minor feats are hugely contingent on context - if you're playing a bunch of two-bit hoodlums trying to break into the big time of London's underworld, some of these are going to be waaaaay less useful. That's OK - there aren't any on first glance that are easily used to make the DM's life hard (something I really appreciate!).

Multiclass feats allow you to either gain another class' cool stuff, or another archetype's cool stuff. So if you're a Strong hero (Brawler) and you want to learn some sick MMA moves, you can gain the MMA Fighter multiclass feat. Notably, these do not scale and are generally not as effective as just being in that class / archetype. However, they are an interesting way broaden your character's abilities, but they can get pretty feat-intensive. For example, if you're a Martial Artist (Agile hero, using Dexterity), and you want to do any submissions or takedowns? Well, you're going to need:
Strength 13+Strong Hero Training Feat (available at 2nd level)To be level 4+
So that's a pretty significant cost to be able to add some control to your damage (40% of your total feats). There are Advanced multiclass feats, but those only open up at level 8, and by that point we're talking about 60% of your total feats sunk into another archetype entirely. 

Optimizers will have fun with this, but for my first campaign, I suspect I'll probably discourage multiclassing to see how well everything works without it. Once I've got a good handle on things, then we'll open it up and see what it can do. 

Alright, next up we're moving into the Game Rules section, starting with Chapter 8: Core Rules. This chapter is mostly a heavily edited version of the SRD rules, but that editing is doing a lot to make the game easier to run. Examples, callouts, clarifications, and generally cleaning up the rules sections show the team making this is very familiar with 5E, and understand how the game runs. 

We do see some innovations in the skills section, especially adding skills that would be required for a modern game. New skills include:

Arts & CraftsComputersEndurance (a Constitution skill!)MechanicsNatural SciencesSecuritySocial SciencesStreetwiseVehicles
They went ahead and removed History, Nature, Arcana, Animal Handling, and Religion. That's a net add of only 4 skills, which for a modern game ain't bad. I think some of these (notably Arts & Crafts and Vehicles) probably could have been left as equipment proficiencies, but the rest of them feel pretty OK. Streetwise is my personal favorite (like Gather Information from the old days!)

Next they break down Saving Throws, most notably including why you would call for a Charisma saving throw vs a Wisdom or Intelligence save, which is a really handy thing to give a new DM! Good job! 

Finally, they close out the chapter with conditions. These have some subtle changes to them, and there are a few more that I'll be interested to see in play! For example, Frightened no longer stops you from moving closer to the source of your fear, but keeps the disadvantages. You can be Distracted (no reactions or bonus actions, and disadvantage to Wisdom and Intelligence checks unless those checks are made at the source of your distraction - finally, a condition that reflects parenthood!). They've also added an Intoxicated condition that works a bit like abbreviated Exhaustion, and can literally drop you to zero hp and cause you to start making death saves if you keep pushing your luck. OOF. 

Overall, feats feel pretty close to right, though I'd want to do some more playtesting before giving a final verdict on them. The Core Rules are an outstanding rephrasing of the SRD, and much cleaner and easier to run, especially for newbies. Love it!

Next time, we'll check in on Combat and (if we have any time), the outstandingly named "Miscellaneous Rules."

See y'all later!

----------


## animorte

I was able to catch up on some reading and responding just before you posted this most recent one!

*Spoiler: Even more unhelpful words!*
Show

.



> Use the tools in Emmy Allen's fantastic _Esoteric Enterprises_ for DM-facing procedural generation.


Havent heard of this either. Has anyone made an offer to pay your for your services yet?

Ive already downloaded the Everyday Heroes QuickStart and will definitely be getting the full one in the future, all because of you.



> So, every even level (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10), you can select either two minor feats or one major feat.


Sounds good. I have to wonder. Do any of these feats have a level prerequisite?



> That's OK - there aren't any on first glance that are easily used to make the DM's life hard (something I really appreciate!).


From what youve shown so far, not only do they know their audience, they also know what its like to actually play!



> So that's a pretty significant cost


That seems fair, honestly.



> Once I've got a good handle on things, then we'll open it up and see what it can do.


I would do this too. Though some systems have an extremely simple form of multi-classing. Worlds Without Numbers has a ton of skill and magic options to choose from, but once you have them, it doesnt really seem to open up much complexity.



> This chapter is mostly a heavily edited version of the SRD rules, but that editing is doing a lot to make the game easier to run.


This sounds extremely promising, also follows with the detail of additional information on how things function. This additional detail can be very helpful.



> They went ahead and removed History, Nature, Arcana, Animal Handling, and Religion.


Not gonna lie, Im not sure I completely follow this. Some of them seem to be replaced by modern terminology. Animals still exist, right?  :Small Tongue: 



> Next they break down Saving Throws which is a really handy thing to give a new DM! Good job!


Woohoo!



> You can be Distracted (no reactions or bonus actions, and disadvantage to Wisdom and Intelligence checks unless those checks are made at the source of your distraction - finally, a condition that reflects parenthood!).


My wife and I both got a really good laugh out of this one. Maybe this game is getting _too_ real



> The Core Rules are an outstanding rephrasing of the SRD, and much cleaner and easier to run, especially for newbies. Love it!


I had mentioned earlier, if its more polished with more details, maybe theres a little less room for imagination, but at least it cant as easily be abused.

----------


## Sparky McDibben

> Dan and I have waited long enough. Actually I didnt because I showed up to the party super late. Thats probably the end of my sympathy for Dan though.


Hahahah!




> Leaves less to the imagination, but also less ways to abuse said imagination.


I don't know about that - I think I'm phrasing this poorly. What they're really doing is giving the DM context as to what this rule is doing here. What is the intent? What problem is it trying to solve? I really love this trend in game design, and I hope WotC is paying attention. 




> I was able to catch up on some reading and responding just before you posted this most recent one!


Literally saw that right after I posted the last section! I thought it was hilarious!




> Havent heard of this either. Has anyone made an offer to pay your for your services yet?


Nah - I just have a lot of supplements crowding my digital shelves, and I like digging into them in this format. 




> Sounds good. I have to wonder. Do any of these feats have a level prerequisite?


Almost all of them, I think. Good to see you 'round, friend!

*Free Campaign Idea:* The PCs are all law enforcement (or law enforcement adjacent, like coroners, forensics techs, etc) who see something deeply unnatural that they weren't supposed to see. They promptly get burned by authority, but having no options does wonderful things to one's ability to focus. Setting themselves up as monster hunters, they delve deeper and deeper into the horrific world they've uncovered, and try their best to stay alive in the process.

Inspirations: _Dresden Files, Hunter: The Vigil, X-Files_

How I'd Do It: Straight up monster of the week procedural. Generate a few leads, and every so often throw the PCs a clue about what / who initially burned them. 

So, onto Chapter 9: Combat! Combat is (and I think this will shock no one) largely left unchanged from base 5E. However, there are a few notable innovations I wanted to call out:

Suppressive Fire - You can unload on an area, causing automatic damage to anyone moving into it or who is outside of total coverSecond Wind - Once per short rest, anyone can use this action to spend up to half their HD, regaining the rolled total plus (HD spent x Con mod)Dive For Cover - a new reaction that lets people try to get out of the way of incoming danger, moving up to half their speed and falling prone

Dive for Cover is a pretty awesome way to get 'round the limited number of OA's a modern combat would trigger using 5E rules - you just give people something else to do with their reaction! After that, the chapter walks through attack actions in detail, covering stuff like burst fire, thrown explosives, rockets, and AoEs. All of it's very clear, covers the obvious edge cases, and gives guidance to both DMs and players. Love it!

Next up they cover cover (see what I did there?), including the typical Armor Values for various kinds of cover, so your players know if they can shoot through that bunker or not. They also go into detail on "What does losing HP mean?" so you don't have new DMs trying to narrate why the PCs are still on their feet after weathering a fusillade of .50 cal rounds. 

They also repeat a bunch of text from the Equipment chapter, most especially around some of the mechanics for armor saves and burst fire. My guess is that these are meant to come in several volumes, so it makes sense to repeat information where multiple people can reference it. Or, alternatively, they just want to make sure you, as the DM, don't have to dig a lot to find the info you want. 

Next up is the chapter on Miscellaneous Rules. This is kind of a mish-mash, but a useful one. It covers companions (which cover everything from monkeys to robots to robot monkeys) and how PCs can use them, stealth rules, how to get out of restraints (which makes me think the playtesters got arrested a lot), concealing items, breaking stuff, and traps. A fair bit of good stuff in here, spelling out common situations for new DMs. Again, all stuff most of us have figured out, but this setup is gold for a newbie. 

The final chapter in Game Rules is Chases & Vehicles. It covers, well, chasing and vehicles. Chases are actually pretty simple - the DM sets a time limit, like 4 rounds, and each group engages in skill checks depending on how the chase is going. If you're the person being chased (the prey), then you can try to set up complications for your pursuers; if you're the pursuer, you can do stuff like shoot out their tires, etc. Depending on dice and player skill, each "side" accrues chase points. At the end of the time limit, whoever has the most chase points wins (so the prey escapes, or the pursuer brings them to ground). 

The system is pretty simple, but robust enough to handle a wide variety of applications. We'll get into this more in the DM's section, but suffice it to say that it can handle most stuff I could think to throw at it.

After that are vehicles. Vehicles are pretty fragile - they don't have hit points, so if they get hit, you make a Con save (using the vehicle's Con score), and if you succeed, you suffer damage to a random part of the vehicle. If you fail, the vehicle is totaled (which is a new vehicle condition), and crashes. So as long as you have AP ammo, you can wreck so many cars (which is probably why all the cop cars are Bulletproof, come to think of it), but your car is always one shot away from wrapping itself around a telephone pole. 

I was impressed, however, that they have thought through and answered most of my questions already - like, "How much damage do the passengers take?" They've already got a little table for that, and for handling vehicles in combat and chases, which cover similarly common questions. 

I really like how hard the design team worked to make sure DMs are empowered in this game - "The GM has final say" is a phrase that crops up so many times in these rules, usually right after they've spelled out their assumptions for how a rule will play out, so you're empowered to say, "Nope, that particular application doesn't make sense, and we're doing something different."

Love it! 

Next time, we'll get into the DM section, and start covering some of the tools they've laid out to help the overworked DMs of the world bring the game to life.

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## Sigfried Trent

> I don't know about that - I think I'm phrasing this poorly. What they're really doing is giving the DM context as to what this rule is doing here. What is the intent? What problem is it trying to solve? I really love this trend in game design, and I hope WotC is paying attention.


My old pathfinder feat books (Advanced Feats) had a commentary with each feat where I talked about balance issues, design inspiration etc... I think for a core rulebook, that wouldn't work, and for a feat book it makes it more interesting to read.  I do try to slide in some designer perspective in the books where I think it feels natural, or where it adds to the understanding of the game itself.

Anyway, loving the review and the discussions around it. :)

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## Sigfried Trent

> They also repeat a bunch of text from the Equipment chapter


There are a few reasons. The main reason is that these were things that playtesters either didn't use because they missed them or were kind of confused about how they worked. I found that repeating some of the new mechanics in any location they appear in, or at least re-summarizing them helped playtesters notice them and use them more or less as intended.  (I don't mind if folks change the rules, but I hope they are doing it because they intentionally want to change them rather than because they missed it or didn't understand it.)

A lot of our examples came from that as well.  We'd look at questions about the rules and say, can we make it so this question wouldn't need to be asked?

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## animorte

> A lot of our examples came from that as well.  We'd look at questions about the rules and say, can we make it so this question wouldn't need to be asked?


Keep up the good work. I've just begun looking through the quick start.



> I do try to slide in some designer perspective in the books where I think it feels natural, or where it adds to the understanding of the game itself.


I very much appreciate some dev commentary, like a director's cut.

*Spoiler: Just more words here*
Show




> I really love this trend in game design, and I hope WotC is paying attention.


Amen to that!



> Good to see you 'round, friend!


 :Small Smile: 



> All of it's very clear, covers the obvious edge cases, and gives guidance to both DMs and players. Love it!


I have been witnessing clarity through the quick start as well. I'm trying to get my friends on this already.



> Again, all stuff most of us have figured out, but this setup is gold for a newbie.


See above. This is going to help significantly.



> suffice it to say that it can handle most stuff I could think to throw at it.


Have you seen the arm on this guy?



> Next time, we'll get into the DM section, and start covering some of the tools they've laid out to help the overworked DMs of the world bring the game to life.


If it's anything akin to your previous statements, we're in for a treat.

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## Sigfried Trent

> Keep up the good work. I've just begun looking through the quick start.


Will do!  BTW: The Quickstart rules are a bit outdated with the published game as they were done during playtest to support the Kickstarter. We are planning to update it when we have the opportunity in our schedule.  It's still basically the same, just a bit less refined and with a few terms and concepts that changed in the final cut.

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## animorte

> Will do!  BTW: The Quickstart rules are a bit outdated with the published game as they were done during playtest to support the Kickstarter. We are planning to update it when we have the opportunity in our schedule.  It's still basically the same, just a bit less refined and with a few terms and concepts that changed in the final cut.


That makes sense, thanks for the heads-up! It occured to me that I won't really have a refined perspective to compare with as I don't have the full book yet (aside from the review presented here, of course).

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## Myth27

my best campaign in 5e was an homebrew d20modern so I'm very interested and thank you for letting me know the existence of this book, I'll definitely check it out.
incidentally you might be interested to know about the exitance of similar thing by "panik production" called "modern dungeon5" that seemed quite well done to me (although it was more 5e than d20modern)

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## Sparky McDibben

> My old pathfinder feat books (Advanced Feats) had a commentary with each feat where I talked about balance issues, design inspiration etc... I think for a core rulebook, that wouldn't work, and for a feat book it makes it more interesting to read.  I do try to slide in some designer perspective in the books where I think it feels natural, or where it adds to the understanding of the game itself.





> There are a few reasons. The main reason is that these were things that playtesters either didn't use because they missed them or were kind of confused about how they worked. I found that repeating some of the new mechanics in any location they appear in, or at least re-summarizing them helped playtesters notice them and use them more or less as intended.  (I don't mind if folks change the rules, but I hope they are doing it because they intentionally want to change them rather than because they missed it or didn't understand it.)
> 
> A lot of our examples came from that as well.  We'd look at questions about the rules and say, can we make it so this question wouldn't need to be asked?


It shows! I actually really like that y'all repeat stuff; I caught the armor saving throw stuff in the combat section, not in the equipment section where I should have seen it. 

By the way, I want to just call something out here. Mr. Trent's whole career got thrown into some serious legal jumble with this OGL leak crap (see here). Now, I know that if this were me, I'd be in a full-on meltdown right now, just huddled up under a blanket and scrolling LinkedIn.

Mr. Trent, in contrast, is out here, engaging with us on our little forum, talking about his cool-as$ game with passion, fire, and conviction. I thought that was so [email protected] cool I just went ahead and bought the two adventures they've released so far (_Escape From New York_ and _The Crow_). 

Rock on, and good luck to you, Mr. Trent; you're a mensch.




> If it's anything akin to your previous statements, we're in for a treat.


It's pretty good!




> my best campaign in 5e was an homebrew d20modern so I'm very interested and thank you for letting me know the existence of this book, I'll definitely check it out.
> incidentally you might be interested to know about the exitance of similar thing by "panik production" called "modern dungeon5" that seemed quite well done to me (although it was more 5e than d20modern)


Never heard of it; I'll check it out!

Alright, folks, on to the DMing advice section!

This is the last section of the core rules, and is broken down into three chapters plus a mini-_Monster Manual._ The first chapter is the GM's Toolbox, and is mostly an aggregation of pretty solid advice on how to GM the game. It covers stuff like:
How to scale DC with character levelEncounter building budgetsJudging AoE impacts both on grids and theatre of the mindNPC roles in combatWays you can adjust combat difficulty to create more interesting fights (terrain, cover, dynamic effects, etc.)Adjusting combats for the longer ranges of a modern game ("What do you do if the sniper is like a mile away and doesn't fit on the battlemap?")When (and when not) to use chasesMore consideration for deploying chases in your gamesA bunch of [email protected] tables for chase complications across a massive variety of circumstancesSome pretty good, grounded guidance for running social encountersHow to limit the heroes' equipment without the players throwing a fitA great table of travel times by time period that covers everything from "Walking" to "Supersonic Plane" to "Rowboat"How do you run hacking? Includes various useful terms and definitions - enough to talk the talk without making you get a network security badge.How do you run snipers?How do you handle a hostage situation?What do you do when the heroes call the cops?

Like, it's a [email protected] smorgasboard of advice that's tailor-made to this game. Nothing mind-blowing, nothing revelatory, but having everything you need to run a game, and have the game tell you what it's about is it's own kind of innovation. Plus, the advice is generally good! Some of it isn't to my taste (I don't like scaling DCs with level, for example, but rather scaling them with narrative justification), but I can't fault them for enabling different play styles. Well, OK, I _could,_ but I'm not going to. 

The stuff I listed, by the way, is pretty much just the first half of the chapter. There's a delightful section on optional rules (like how to handle reloading, poisons, diseases, etc.), and a section on drugs that's so comprehensive I'm convinced these cats had _way_ more fun in their 20's than I did.

My one gripe on this chapter is that it doesn't give you any procedural generation tools. That's a stylistic choice (and God knows I can always go find some on 1d4 caltrops' blog), but it would have been nice. 

The next chapter in this section is called Running A Game, and is chock full of sound advice on how to actually run a game at the table. They clearly lean harder on the narrativist side of GMing, but the advice they offer covers most playstyles. There's a lot of advice about story structure, improvising NPCs, how to narrate, the basic game loop, when to roll dice, etc. I personally dislike actively building in story structure to a game session, but again, that's a stylistic choice. Who knows? Maybe I've just never seen it done well before. Regardless, this chapter is 28 pages of solid DMing advice. 

I have only one complaint:

There is no (zero, zip, zilch, NONE) advice for who brings the [email protected] pizza. It should clearly be the players' responsibility, and I would have liked to see that in print. 

Finally, the last chapter is on creating adventures. It's 14 pages of decent advice on pacing, building adventures, and keeping a game going long-term. I was really sad to not see any procedural generation support here for new DMs, but that's really my only complaint. Everything else is very well done!

Finally, we get to the mini-_Monster Manual._ This is 92 pages long, which frankly astounded me. It breaks down every element of the stat blocks up front, so you have one place to refer to when you're like, "What the hell does Armor do again?"

But after that....holy crap. Oh. My. Gawd. They actually did it. Those crazy loons at Evil Genius games actually..._provided a listing of every monster in the book, organized by CR and then alphabetized, plus their combat roles and then they gave me a hyperlinked page reference!!!_

Guys, I think WotC has really lowered my standards for information presentation and layout. I should probably starting doing more OSR reviews, honestly.

But no, seriously, think about how friggin easy that's going to make prepping an encounter. Even if I'm building something off-the-cuff, it's super-easy to find a couple of level-appropriate goons and throw them into an encounter!

After that, we get into the actual stat blocks. I'm not going to review the actual statblocks themselves, since most of them are people or animals, but there's a solid spread between CRs and the monsters go up to CR 15 (the God From Beyond). I'm pretty excited to run some of these (the Slasher has some fun "You can't kill me" mechanics, and it's a beefy CR 6, so it can always come back for a sequel)!

Aaaand that's pretty much a wrap on Everyday Heroes. All in all, I really like it! I think I found my new modern game. 

*Who Should Buy It:* If you're running a relatively (anytime past about 1900) modern game, or a futuristic sci-fi game based on a more grounded ruleset, these rules will come in very handy

*Who Should Not Buy It:* If you're sticking around in the faux-medieval, you probably don't need this. Then again, if something happens that catapults the game world forward 500 years, it might come in _really_ handy.

That's me done, then, lads. Anybody want to read a review of _Escape from New York_ some time?

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## Libertad

> That's me done, then, lads. Anybody want to read a review of _Escape from New York_ some time?


I would, very much so!

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## Sigfried Trent

> Rock on, and good luck to you, Mr. Trent; you're a mensch.


And you are a reviewer of fine humor and fantastic taste. :)   I try to read every review and this one was just a ton of fun!  I don't speak for the company (just the game itself) but I think we will manage to sort our way through this crisis.  I took special pains not to copy and paste anything from the SRD which gives us a little more leeway with what we can do. I also think, as you point out in the review Everyday Heroes just doesn't feel like D&D even if it shares its rules system DNA.




> a section on drugs that's so comprehensive I'm convinced these cats had _way_ more fun in their 20's than I did.


Its a kind of funny story how that came about. My commitment to the owner was to make his game as best I could. He felt that having rules for drug use was something he wanted. I was hesitant. I asked the games early supporters and they also said it was something they thought should be in there. So I went and researched the heck out of it. I'm a teetotaler myself, barely even drink alcohol, so my first-hand experience is limited, but I love research so I tried to create the most realistic and non-judgemental portrayal of recreational drugs I could.  I also wrote a long section about how organized crime works and the drug trade overall, but it got put on the shelf for future projects. Some of it was re-purposed for The Crow.




> My one gripe on this chapter is that it doesn't give you any procedural generation tools. That's a stylistic choice (and God knows I can always go find some on 1d4 caltrops' blog), but it would have been nice.


Thanks, I'll take that into consideration for future development.  I think something like that could be really cool, and while I don't do a lot of random generation as a GM, I think its a great tool.




> There is no (zero, zip, zilch, NONE) advice for who brings the [email protected] pizza. It should clearly be the players' responsibility, and I would have liked to see that in print.


I would direct your attention to the last sentence of the first paragraph of Page 13:  "Game Masters also sometimes get free pizza from grateful players!"  :Small Big Grin: 




> That's me done, then, lads. Anybody want to read a review of _Escape from New York_ some time?


I certainly do, but I'm terribly biased about such things!

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## Brookshw

> I would direct your attention to the last sentence of the first paragraph of Page 13:  "Game Masters also sometimes get free pizza from grateful players!"


Hah! That's awesome.

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## animorte

*Spoiler: You know the words!*
Show




> Mr. Trent, in contrast, is out here, engaging with us on our little forum, talking about his cool-as$ game with passion, fire, and conviction.


Definitely this. Keep being awesome!



> [*]Ways you can adjust combat difficulty to create more interesting fights (terrain, cover, dynamic effects, etc.)


Seriously, a lot of people could benefit from this. I see much talk about how people are struggling with play because how often it's simply a race to no HP and it irks me to the core.



> [*]Some pretty good, grounded guidance for running social encounters


Just what you've been looking for!  :Small Tongue:  I'm interested in how this applies to your social structure requests.



> Well, OK, I _could,_ but I'm not going to.


Very classy, indeed!



> But after that....holy crap. Oh. My. Gawd. They actually did it. Those crazy loons at Evil Genius games actually..._provided a listing of every monster in the book, organized by CR and then alphabetized, plus their combat roles and then they gave me a hyperlinked page reference!!!_


I'll believe it when I see it for myself. That's wicked cool.



> Guys, I think WotC has really lowered my standards for information presentation and layout. I should probably starting doing more OSR reviews, honestly.


I definitely see what you mean. When I started (within the past few months) looking into other systems for the first time, I started to encounter this. It seems others prioritize organization and clarity, quite the blessing.



> Aaaand that's pretty much a wrap on Everyday Heroes. All in all, I really like it! I think I found my new modern game.


Same here, all thanks to you!



> *Who Should Buy It:* _Everybody!_


Fixed that for you.  :Small Big Grin: 





> That's me done, then, lads. Anybody want to read a review of _Escape from New York_ some time?


You know I'll be here for all of them if I can. And this is why:



> And you are a reviewer of fine humor and fantastic taste. :)   I try to read every review and this one was just a ton of fun!


I couldn't have said it better myself.



> I love research so I tried to create the most realistic and non-judgemental portrayal of recreational drugs I could.


Very cool. It's nice to be aware of that dedication to be accurate and open-minded. 



> I would direct your attention to the last sentence of the first paragraph of Page 13:  "Game Masters also sometimes get free pizza from grateful players!"


What a legend.

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## BeholderEyeDr

Another great review from Sparky, and one that convinced me to pick this up. It seems awesome. Thanks!

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## Yakk

Hanging more stuff on the primary attribute of the class means that characters will almost certainly want to maximize the value of their primary attribute.

Which means all level X thieves are level Y dexterous, all barbarians level Y strong, etc.

This, in turn, means that you can't have the "I'm a really skilled fighter", "I am an insane acrobat" and "I'm not as skilled, but crazy strong" next to each other -- primary attribute maximization eats up the space.  5e has it pretty bad; if your defence is tied to it, it gets even worse!

And this is a pretty standard trope in a lot of the inspiring fiction.  So it is sad that so many systems throw it away.

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## Sigfried Trent

> Hanging more stuff on the primary attribute of the class means that characters will almost certainly want to maximize the value of their primary attribute.
> 
> Which means all level X thieves are level Y dexterous, all barbarians level Y strong, etc.
> 
> This, in turn, means that you can't have the "I'm a really skilled fighter", "I am an insane acrobat" and "I'm not as skilled, but crazy strong" next to each other -- primary attribute maximization eats up the space.  5e has it pretty bad; if your defence is tied to it, it gets even worse!
> 
> And this is a pretty standard trope in a lot of the inspiring fiction.  So it is sad that so many systems throw it away.


I think this is a good analysis, and I love critique and analysis, but if you read Everyday Heroes specifically, it doesn't necessarily play out that way.

For instance: The skills you are proficient in are not based on an ability score but a combination of your Background, Profession, and Class.  Both profession and class have a large influence in skill proficiency.  So you can be an Academic Brawler for instance, and have quite a few proficiencies in social sciences, computers, and so forth, alongside the Athletics, Endurance, and physical skills you might expect a Brawler to have. Likewise, you could be a Smart Scientist who's day job is being a star Athlete.

And while a Brawler certainly wants a good strength score, beyond that, they are free to pick and choose since they are not tied also to Dex for defense, they can more freely invest in Int, Wis, or Charisma.

Part of the thinking behind the way we do defense is to take away Dex as a stat every combatant needs to seriously consider, which frees them to be a bit more creative without tanking their survivability. Con is still kind of in that range, but we have feats you can use to bolster HP and various classes have ways to recover HP or get temp HP so there are alternate routes to stay alive.

The other half of it was that we wanted the character-building to both be simple and rich at the same time.  Tying a class's combat performance strongly to a single score makes it easy for new players to build a good character without too much worry.  But it also gives people who want to make multi-faceted characters more freedom to customize their scores to the customizations they want to make.

Anyhow, I'm not trying to say your analysis is wrong, it makes total sense, but just to explain what my design strategy was in making this choice.

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## Yakk

Sure; but if (brawlers defence is based off strength) and (strength buffs are based on level) and (you are basically forced to maximize strength to get ok defence) was replaced by (brawlers defence is based on level)...

Suddenly Strength is no longer a must-bump stat for Brawlers (ie, if you fail to maximize it, you don't become gimped).

Strength can still do useful things; my point is not making is dominate, and become must-maximize.

"Strength boosts damage; maximized strength means 15% more damage" would be a nice-to-have but not a must-have.

"Strength determines defence and accuracy; maximized strength means you take 50% less damage and hit 33% more" would be "if you don't do this you are screwed".

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## KorvinStarmast

> I googled a lot of median wage figures for various jobs and compared them to IRS tax brackets etc... (I have an econ degree so I get excited by that kind of thing.)


 I think there's a support group for that.   :Small Big Grin: 




> The average RPG tabletop game designer... well let's just say we don't do it primarily for the money! (it's hard to actually find any statistics on that in fact)


 And yet, that's how Gygax got started, in his little indie company with Don Kaye, and look at how that worked out. All you need to do is catch lightning in a bottle ... do you need a Dex bonus to do that?  :Small Confused: 



> I took special pains not to copy and paste anything from the SRD which gives us a little more leeway with what we can do.


 *tips cap for use of good judgment* 




> I would direct your attention to the last sentence of the first paragraph of Page 13:  "Game Masters also sometimes get free pizza from grateful players!"


 This really ought to be an industry standard...



> Anyhow, I'm not trying to say your analysis is wrong, it makes total sense, but just to explain what my design strategy was in making this choice.


 While I doubt I'll follow in Sparky's shoes, it's great to hear from someone who is 'in the belly of the beast' of getting a game put together. 
Thanks so much for your insights. + eleventy

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## Sparky McDibben

> I would direct your attention to the last sentence of the first paragraph of Page 13:  "Game Masters also sometimes get free pizza from grateful players!"


You, sir, are a great American and a darned fine human being!




> Sure; but if (brawlers defence is based off strength) and (strength buffs are based on level) and (you are basically forced to maximize strength to get ok defence) was replaced by (brawlers defence is based on level)...
> 
> Suddenly Strength is no longer a must-bump stat for Brawlers (ie, if you fail to maximize it, you don't become gimped).
> 
> Strength can still do useful things; my point is not making is dominate, and become must-maximize.


To be clear here...you're asking for the STRONG HERO class to be less reliant on Strength as a stat?

Alright folks, I think, having read _Escape from New York,_ that I'll go ahead and give it a review. I'll start a new thread for that when I get a chance and we'll start going over it. It's 128 pages, so there's quite a bit to review. 

Mr. Trent, I'll post a thread in the _Escape from New York_ page on DriveThru so you don't have to keep scrolling through our madness.  :Small Big Grin: 

Thanks everybody, and I'll see you this weekend!

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