Sta buy system for Fuzzy heroes?

[Helios]

I was wondering if anyone made a stat-buy system for fuzzy heroes or has guidelines/advice for one?

While the current system of derived attributes from a toy are nice, I would personally prefer a more fixed/standard system in which you can have more leeway in determining the stats yourself by buying them with points or a similar system.
Even though I didn't have much balance issues, I would generally prefer something like this to make it less fixed on the type of toy you are using.

(Also, it can be a bit unfair to play a pink bunny having a drastic lowered avoidance roll due to colour, while the same type of plush with a different colour suddenly has a better avoidance)

I can understand it makes the system simpler this way, but it could be a nice addition.

[Chris]

Sorry for the late reply - I missed this one somehow.

There is a balancing system of sorts on page#45 of the 2e rules.

The root reason for making the stats of a toy mimic the look of the toy is so that during a battle, your opponent would know to attack a given opposing Fuzzy Hero as it should have a lower DC, a lower Avoidance Roll, what-have-you. In other words, it leads to greater planning and more intelligent play, but loses "hidden information" as a consequence. When we were playtesting, one of my testers compared it to:

"Okay, three guys are attacking you. One is in full kevlar and carries a gun just slightly smaller than your car. The other two are wearing wizard outfits. Which one will you attack with anti-magic? Which will you attack with magic? Which will you shoot?"

Toys are an unrealistic enough depiction of any real world counterparts that establishing a baseline for combat capability recognition seemed intuitively to be needed, IMHO, and hence the system that exists... the sans-stat-buying system.

There is greater flexibility with this in the rpg section of the rules, so that you can customize your character a bit... but it is still based upon "it is what it apears to be".

Given all of that... I still understand your point. The game does lack an "intelligence/counter-intelligence factor" as a result. More information is available to your opponent in a Fuzzy Heroes battle than might be expected in another genre. It was an unavoidable trade-off in the current version of the rules.

XXOOCC

[Darius]

You could add stuffed moles that can go behind enemy lines to retrieve info.

It makes sense for a combat simulation to make it easy to recognize the enemy just like you would know the value of tanks, soldiers, and the like in a WWII combat sim. I think for the RPG factor such things should be abandoned, but I understand that the RPG aspect is rather light in the rules.

[Chris]

Heh moles that burrow ARE in the rules.... (see Burrowing on page#28).

...and yes, I wanted to keep the rpg aspect as simple as possible, allowing the GM greater flexibility in the way he/she set up their gaming universe for Fuzzy Heroes. More work for the GM, but again, I think the trade off was necessary.

XXOOCC

[Helios]

Hey, I just wanted to say I find the style and such perfectly fine by me.
I can also understand the reason to have made the choices you did, it makes it very easy to set up and use.

It was just that, I was wondering whether a stat buy system was out there to possibly also have battles using simple, generic figures to represent whatever the player wants to play.
Primarily just because I don't really have every kind of plush toy they could possibly ask for (or imagine), and also prefer keeping things a bit smaller scale by using smaller miniatures. (the movement reductions that come with smaller sizes work fine).

Ofcourse, I am working with a more rpg like setting and expanding a bit on the system given in the second edition of fuzzy heroes.
Just in case you would like to know, I'm trying to base an rpg based on the setting of "lions, tigers and bears", a comic I really have grown fond off.
I know the rules are very light weighted, but the simplicity makes it perfect to jump in and any advancement won't ruin it so easily for players jumping in later.

The story of lions,tigers and bears, really revolves in plush toys to actually be guardians of children at night. They protect against creatures that would try to harm or even kidnap children during night time.
I though the setting to be interesting, and also offers a good ongoing campaign/battle against the forces of evil coming from the dream world at night.

I'm still in the planning stages, but i'm in an rpg group where we really tend to hop around trying many different rpg's every now and then, and this seems like a nice change of pace.

[Chris]

I hope I didn't sound too defensive . The pooint was anything but "oh my god how can you say that!"... it was more that I veiwed the tradeoff as a necessary evil.

Hoping the balancing system listed on page #45 gives you at least a starting point. I imagine that other fans of the system would want to see any point solution you might come up with... I know I would. It certainly will work with the rules, and its an alternative that really should be out there for the players, I'll admit.

I also have the right to put out a free, and extremely funny/cute scenario that was written several years ago by a supporter of the system. It was a "global warming" scenario that was based around a messy bedroom with blocked air conditioning vents and penguins and it was absolutely awesome. I'll have to see if I can dig that up and pdf it soonest.

XXOOCC

[Helios]

Wow! thanks
That scenario about global warming really does sound interesting

Actually was thinking of just taking one of the sizes as a "medium" or standard size, and just allow the choice of one step smaller or larger size etc. and generate stats for miniatures that way without relying on a specific plush. (afterwards just using tokens)
Still, if it is helpful to you (and ofcourse usefull to what fans are still out there) I could definitely try and soup up an attempt at a balanced point buy system or other to make a more freeform character generation in case of rpg settings.
The exact point scores for certain abilities may be hard to figure out, but enough playtesting should shave off rough edges over time.

In any case, it probably will be something like..having a fixed point value to distribute over the base stats, and then some separate amount of points for special abbilities, skills and the like. Just to keep the basic stats the same for all, and potentially keeping the monster/NPC stats still somewhat of a challenge to players even if they would advance.
I reckon it will primarily be used for rpg's anyway, though it should be useful for standard one off battles as well.

I'll get to it, and show off what I get etc.
On a side note:
Incidentally, I actually got lucky and won an ebay auction on a lot containing (most) fuzzy heroes related books, so if the point system works out.. I could see about what I can do for the other systems as well. (all but the last two books are available in pdf after all)

Just as a short unrelated question; any chance I could still be able to get the single missing book (fuzzy Sooper heroes), and perhaps combined with the newest two books (plastic ships, fuzzy men and the second edition fuzzy heroes book), from you directly?
Since I'm in the Netherlands, it's an international order though.

Just don't know if the website is still functional for orders, and how it would work for international orders in that regard.
Though probably have to wait on actually ordering, as I'm a bit short on cash at the moment.
(I do have the last two books in pdf, but well.. a printed out book to show off to players just adds a bit of collector's pride and is also a bit more functional/easier then lot's of printed out papers with some staples in them.

I'll let you know when something has surfaced
(I also really should do a review of the newer edition, I don't think it got that much exposure did it?)

[Chris]

Pardon my frustration; I just spent an hour typing in a short treatise on how we do game balancing out here, and then the phone rang, and the BBS here timed out and dumped the entire thing, explaining to me that I needed to sign in again. Sigh...

You need to be able to balance an increase in stats against the effect that increase has in terms of the game. Generally, this takes the form of the ability to survive (Energy Points), or the ability to make someone else not survive (Damage Dice or actual damage). This can be acheived mathematically, and expressed as a ratio. That ratio will at least give you the amount of increase or decrease in point cost for a given stat or ability, as determined by the base math of the game. Hope that's not too cryptic, but I'm worried the phone might ring and I'll lose this post again, so I'm avoiding the "page-full-of-mathematical-computations" I had posted earlier.

Find the ratio, and use it to refine the relationship between the costs of the various stats and abilities, and then assign whatever baseline number to the first of the stats that you wish. That should work for any balancing system. I look forward to seeing yours.

There are a total of 5 supplement books that have been written for the system, but they all predate Fuzzy Heroes 2nd Edition. 2E was written to work with these already-written supplements, rather than the other way around, so fear not. Everything in all of those books works perfectly well with 2e. We refined a lot for the second edition, we changed very little.

The only reason we don't ship to europe, or anywhere beyond Canada and England, is that such shipments are impossible to trace without incurring exhorbitant shipping fees. I can calculate what it would cost to send a package to the Netherlands with tracing if you wish, or I can send it book rate (which is a reasonable shipping fee) and we can all take our chances on it getting there, butI have had bad luck shipping book rate, and the company here accepts no responsibility when shipping it in that fashion. IOW, if it never shows up, and you asked us to ship it book rate, you're stuck with no books and no refund.

I hate that, with a passion, but the alternative is a shipping charge that is higher than the value of the books shipped (in most cases). I will look into both of these for you if you wish, and will gladly send you anything you would like from our catalog, but I wanted you to know why we generally do not ship outside of the US, Canada, and England. Let me know what you'd like to do.

I do plan on producing all of the supplemental books as pdf downloads before year's end... but if you want hardcopy eBay and right here are most likely your only optionsfor some fo these books, at least for now.

..and yes, we can always use all of the exposure we can get. I am working on expanding our current distribution, but it is minimal right now. Anything that helps, like a review, is always greatly appreciated.

PS: To send this global priority, at 3 pounds, would cost $81.00 US.... ouch. I am open to other suggestions, but do favor tracability....

XXOOCC

[Darius]

The USPS is going to be the cheapest. To send a small package to Japan, FedEx wanted $245 and UPS wanted something similar. Post office was $45 with the flat rate box. It came with free insurance up to $85, but there was no way to trace it. I guess they have to have some way to know if it got there or not for insurance purposes. I supposed it would be the same to Europe.

BTW, the post office has changed their custom's requirement. If something is over 4 or 6 lbs, you have to fill out a long custom form. They want to know in detail everything that is in there and its cost, size, weight, etc. The post office then has to type it all in. Today I was like um, I don't know. Its clothes. I don't know how much is in there or what it is worth. They made me guess.

[Chris]

Heh, my "prior experience" okay, my real-world job experience (let's be honest) was working for a customs broker - for 16 years. I know my way around those corners... I just hate charging a customer more for shipping than I do for the products being shipped.

Ahh well.....
XXOOCC