Advanced Guidebook. What is Budding Heroes? About this Guidebook. Play Sample Battles. Spread the Word

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1 Advanced Guidebook What is Budding Heroes? Budding Heroes is a new tabletop role playing game that was created from the ground up to be perfect for players of every age and skill level. The game is simple enough that parents or teachers can easily introduce kids to the world of TTRPGs, but it s still deep enough that even the most tactical players can have a great time tearing apart the enemy. Not Too Light, Not Too Heavy Budding Heroes is a game that falls between the entirely narrative-driven rules-lite systems and the cumbersome games that have page after page of tables on carrying capacity and the stats of enchanted swords. Budding Heroes embraces tactical map-based combat while streamlining the experience to make the game fast and fun. Every character has multiple types of attacks and utility powers, and there are tons of different types of enemies fit for every difficulty level. Character creation takes minutes rather than hours, your choices in combat are presented in a simple and straightforward list, and you don t need to worry about constantly calculating to-hit rolls. Combat is Never Boring Every player character has its own health regeneration based on how they fight during combat, the support characters deal damage at the same time that they heal others, tanks can yank enemies away from the ranged attackers, and everyone can deal massive damage with teamwork bonuses and special attacks! About this Guidebook This booklet is intended for players that are already familiar with tabletop role playing games and want some more detailed information on Budding Heroes. In the interest of saving space, we ve skipped the absolute basics like what a GM does, how a game flows between narrative and combat, and the more detailed minutia of how rules play out in borderline situations. This booklet mainly focuses on combat since that s one of the largest ways Budding Heroes differs from other systems. Play Sample Battles This booklet contains information on Character Molds that your players can use, the stats for several different types of enemies, a guideline on how to balance battles, and the basic combat rules. Just throw together a couple standard battles, or even some 3-vs-3 PVP between players, and you ll see how fast and fun combat is with Budding Heroes! Spread the Word Don t forget to tell your friends about Budding Heroes! Our Kickstarter page has plenty of information to get newcomers up to speed on TTRPGs, and you can share this booklet with other experienced players. This PDF is available at so print extra copies for your gaming group to help spread the adventure!

2 Taking Your Turn During each turn, you can move and take a single action. You can choose to move or take the action in either order. Moving and taking an action are each normally optional, but some status effects may change what you can do during your turn. Movement You begin each turn with your full number of Speed points, and moving each square of distance costs one Speed point. Movement and distance measurement follow whichever grid-based method your GM feels is right for your game. If you aren t using a hex-based grid, moving diagonally might cost more than one Speed point. A character must end its movement in an empty square. Some maps may have obstacles that cost extra Speed points to move through, so your GM will let you know any details. Passing through a square occupied by an ally costs one extra Speed point. Passing directly through an enemy s square is not possible. Making an Attack Roll all of the attack s damage dice, the total is the attack s power. Attack s Power - Target s Armor = Damage. Remove the damage from the target s Health. If the target s Health reaches 0 or lower, the target is KO d and cannot be revived during combat. Any written instructions or status effects are followed, even if the attack dealt no immediate damage. If your attack hits multiple targets at the same time (such as a burst or grenade), the full attack power from the original roll is used for each target, and each target uses its own Armor value. If it s a multi-attack, your targets use their full Armor value for each hit, even if you are attacking the same target multiple times. Health Regeneration Each Character Mold has a different event that will trigger its health regeneration. When it happens, you can immediately roll the listed die and add the result to your Health as if it were a normal healing action. Health regeneration can be triggered an unlimited number of times during combat. It cannot bring a character above max Health. Basic Combat Rules Actions Attack attacks are how characters normally deal damage. If an ally is next to your target, you qualify for the bonus and can add the bonus die to your damage roll. Attack attacks are typically less powerful than primary attacks, but they can be very useful in certain situations. Attack attacks are very powerful, but they can only be used a single time until you spend a turn s action to recharge the attack. Extra Movement You can move again with your turn s full number of Speed points. Throw Roll a d4 and move any adjacent character, even an enemy, with that number of Speed points in any direction. Guard Roll a d6 and add that number to your Armor until your next turn. The extra Armor wears off if you are moved for any reason. Recharge Ready your special attack for use on a different turn. The charge does not have to be used on your next turn. You cannot have more than one charge ready at a time. Common Attack Types Melee - Attack any adjacent target. Diagonals are in range, regardless of movement method. Ranged - Attack a target up to the listed squares away. Targets first in line of sight. Unlimited ammo. Burst - Attack every adjacent enemy at once, allies are immune. Diagonals are in range. (The number to the left of each icon is the range.) Drain - Range attack one target, heal another using damage dealt. Can attack/heal self, allies, enemies. Grenade - Create a ranged burst attack that s centered up to the listed squares away. It damages enemies and allies, including the center square. The number inside the icon tells you how far from the center is hit by the attack.

3 Character Molds Character Mold Basics Characters in Budding Heroes might work a bit differently than you expect. In most other games, a character is permanently tied to its role in combat due to things like equipment and abilities, but Budding Heroes uses a system that separates the game s mechanics from the characters themselves. Things like equipment and spell lists don t exist in the game s rules. Instead, you choose a Character Mold that defines your role in combat. Each Character Mold has a premade list of abilities and stats, so you can jump right in without needing to make any tough choices or worrying about min-maxers skewing a game s balance. Most importantly, your character isn t locked into a single path. Since Character Molds only define your role in combat, you re free to change whenever you want. The same character could be a Brute in one combat and a Longshot in the next! A Coat of Paint Character Molds are designed to be as generic as possible. Let s say you want to attack from a distance, so you re thinking of being a Longshot. The Character Mold will tell you that your primary attack is ranged, but you get to decide what that actually means. A ranged attack could be an archer loosing an arrow, a mage lobbing a fireball, a shot from an orbital laser, the ground at your target s feet erupting with carnivorous plants, or anything at all that s fitting for your character or situation. You re not even locked in once you decide - that same ranged attack could be an arrow in one turn, setting off a trap in the next, telling a nearby ally to club someone in the face after that, and then kicking someone in the shin if they get too close. Just like attacks, Armor is also whatever s appropriate. That generic damage reduction could be caused by thick armor, parrying an attack, dodging for cover, a telekinetic barrier, or anything else. Since the game s mechanics are generic, you re free to be truly creative. You re in control of your adventure. Character Mold Stats As you can see, each Character Mold has a list of actions and the three main stats: Your maximum Health and amount you have at the start of combat How much damage you can ignore whenever you re hit by an attack How far you can move during your turn In this example, a Brute fills the role of a tank, so its skills and stats are focused on close range attacks and mitigating damage. The symbol next to each attack is its type. When you make an attack, you roll all of the listed dice to determine the damage and follow any written instructions. replaces the flanking bonus that most games have. If you re making a primary attack and an ally is adjacent to your target, you get to add the bonus die to your damage roll. Each Character Mold also gets its own Health regen. In this case, a Brute gets to heal itself up to three times per turn every time it ends its turn next to enemies.

4 Enemy Balance Understanding the Enemy Planning battles may seem like a daunting task, but each enemy Character Mold has 4 main stats that will help you plan battles that are appropriate for your group s size and the battle s intended difficulty. represents the number of attacks that the enemy should survive, based on the average damage from a player character. is calculated based on the enemy actually being attacked, so a battle with 4 different enemies that each have an of 2.0 should last for about 8 player attacks. A good starting balance to aim for is a combined rating of around 3.0 to 4.0 per player character. Remember that some Character Molds can damage multiple targets with a single attack, so a group of Demolishers may warrant a higher total. Threat Threat is the measure of how much damage an enemy will deal during its estimated survival. It s based on the percentage of a Character Mold s starting Health but doesn t account for healing, so a good combined Threat should be in the area of 6 to 7 per player character. Lower amounts will make for easier battles, and higher amounts (even over 00 per character) are survivable as long as the players are lucky or use their skills wisely. Difficulty Difficulty lets you know how much damage an enemy can cause per attack. Difficulties are categorized into tiers based on Threat per turn to help you easily understand how dangerous an enemy is regardless of its. Effectiveness The Effectiveness table helps you understand how well an enemy will handle different situations in battle. Different types of enemies work better in different situations, and the Effectiveness table takes all the guesswork out of your planning. Effectiveness is shown for how well it handles long range versus short range, how having a bonus affects the enemy, and how effective its attacks are against groups of one, two, or more characters. Enemy Difficulty Levels Fodder (Threat per turn: 0-) These enemies are basically gnats, and they should only be used to show a huge power disparity that favors your players. Weak (Threat per turn: -2) These enemies are fairly weak and shouldn t be used as standard enemies. They can be useful in tutorial battles, to show that your players are very strong, or as weak henchmen working with stronger enemies. Common (Threat per turn: 2-20) Most common enemies will fall in this range since this Difficulty level allows for interesting attack variations without the enemies being too dangerous. Mighty (Threat per turn: 20-29) These are stronger enemies that usually fill the roll of subbosses. Attacks in this Difficulty level are strong enough that they have a chance of devastating the players if the enemy makes a lucky roll, so only use groups of these if the players should feel weak. Elite (Threat per turn: 29-40) This is the usual Difficulty level that an enemy should have for a challenging boss fight. The enemy s attacks will be very strong, but your players can survive as long as they use their skills intelligently. Savage (Threat per turn: 40-2) These enemies are very strong and will normally beat careless or unlucky players. You should use this Difficulty level if your players are facing a boss too early or your players are tactical, lucky, and demanding a challenge. Legendary (Threat per turn: 2-6) Enemies in this Difficulty level hit extremely hard and will almost always beat a group of players if they have appropriate values. They should only be used if players are supposed to feel overwhelmed. Apex (Threat per turn: Over 6) There is a very high chance that a single attack from this enemy will KO a character with full Health, so only use this Difficulty level if you want the battle to feel completely unwinnable.

5 Enemy Sheet Example Taking a Closer Look Here s an example of the information you ll see in a full enemy sheet. This particular character is an Elite version of a Brute Boss Character Mold with Health and Armor tuned for a group of three player characters. A Threat of 226 means that this enemy would be a good challenge on its own for three players, but it d be tough for smaller groups to survive. The of 6., especially with an Armor of only 3, means that this enemy is a bit of a glass cannon. The fight would be over quickly (on average, a group of 3 players would KO the enemy during the players third turn), so it s best paired with a couple weaker enemies to bring the fight to a proper total. The Effectiveness table shows you that this particular enemy works best in short ranges when it can hit a group of two or more players at a time, regardless of whether or not it can qualify for the bonus. That means that the enemy is a great choice for a normal party compositions, but the fight would be easy for a spread out group of Longshots. If your players are the kind that take pot shots against a boss, you should either choose a different type of enemy for your battle or add a couple supporting enemies that work best against long-range solo targets. It s worth noting that this enemy has more than one attack. The () and (2) just mean that you have extra options when it comes to choosing the character s attack, not that they re both part of a giant multi-attack. An enemy may have multiple secondary attacks or special attacks to choose from, but it will only have one primary attack that can qualify for the bonus. If an enemy has multiple special attacks, it is still limited to using only one before needing to recharge. You don t have to decide which special attack the enemy will use in advance, but it can only have one charge readied at a time.

6 Status Effects and Modifying Enemies Status Effects Character Freedom Character Freedom is a rule designed to stop one side from stun-locking another. If an enemy s status effect takes away a character s turn (such as Fear, Stun, or Puppet), the target is immune to any other turn-forfeiting status effects until it has had at least 2 turns under its own control. Common Status Effects The following list covers the basics of some of the most common status effects. There are additional status effects possessed by certain enemies, and further details of the rules are covered in the book. Burning: The character takes damage at the start of its turn, determined by rolling the appropriate damage die. The damage ignores the target s Armor, but it can t bring the target s Health below point. Fear: Fear is caused by the Terrify action. A character affected by it spends its turn moving as far as possible from what caused the status effect. It only uses Speed points from the movement portion of its turn, and its action is discarded. Slow: The character has its maximum number of Speed points lowered to 3, and the maximum range for all abilities is limited to adjacent squares. A character affected by the Slow status effect cannot use its action to guard. Stun: The character cannot move or attack until the Stun status effect expires. It immediately gains the benefits of the guard action as if it had been used during the previous turn (toward any future attacks). Stun can be removed if another character moves into an adjacent square and spends Speed point to revive the character. Threatened: The character has its armor value lowered to 0. Threatened can be removed before it normally expires if the character completely skips its turn. A character affected by Threatened cannot use its action to guard. Changing Enemy and Threat The following pages have Character Molds for example enemies, but only one level of Health and Armor values are given for each enemy in order to save space. If you want to customize their Health and Armor values, you can use the information on this page to calculate their correct and Threat. Enemies can have any amount of Health; the amounts listed below are just examples. To know the for your enemy, simply multiply the enemy s new maximum Health by the per Health number under the appropriate Armor value. Multiply the enemy s new by its listed Threat per turn (next to the difficulty name) to know its new Threat value. Don t Miss the Point One important point to remember is that if a player doesn t deal any damage, they feel like their turn was wasted. High Armor values should be rare since the chance to miss does NOT increase on a linear scale. For example, an attack that deals d6+d2 damage has a.4% chance to miss against Armor 3, an 8.3% chance against Armor, and it quickly spikes to over 4% against Armor 0. If your enemies need a high, you should almost always err or on the side of increasing Health rather than having Armor over or 6. Armor (0.087 per Health) Weak Enemies Armor 2 (0.09 per Health) Armor 3 (0.0 per Health) Normal Enemies Armor 4 (0.8 per Health) Armor (0.33 per Health) Durable Enemies Armor 6 (0.3 per Health) Armor 7 (0.78 per Health)

7 Adventure Flavors Exploring Existing Worlds Budding Heroes has the power to be anything you can imagine, but sometimes people don t have the time or energy to come up with everything from scratch. Thankfully, a key component of Budding Heroes called the Adventure Flavor system is here to help. Adventure Flavors are basically a layer that sit on top of the game to provide it with premade settings, characters, and storylines. The rules of the game stay exactly the same, but Adventure Flavors are able to instantly transport your group into another world. Budding Heroes will launch with one official Adventure Flavor setting, and more will be released in an ongoing line of companion books. Some settings are created uniquely for Budding Heroes, and others license existing intellectual properties to transport your group into your favorite books, TV shows, and movies. Piecing it All Together Community Involvement The Budding Heroes website will feature a section where players can share their own Adventure Flavor pieces without needing to give up their copyright. Keep an eye on for updates! Settings and Plotlines Don t keep your adventure to yourself, let everyone experience it! You can share towns, maps, story hooks, and even entire worlds. Characters and Actions Is your world feeling a little empty? Find some existing characters or share your own for others to enjoy. Enemy Character Molds The website will also include tools to create your own Character Molds. You can even run the information through the official calculators, so you can easily share your ideas without breaking the game s balance! Coldhammer Privateers To switch things up from the overplayed trope of magical high fantasy, one of the Adventure Flavors available at launch takes place on the high seas with a group of privateers. You ll join Thomas Anders and his crew as they battle pirates and other forces that threaten to overtake their homeland of Lorea.

8 Player Character Molds Choosing a Character Mold How do you know which Character Mold is right for your character? It usually comes down to personality. Just think of how your character would approach the situation, and you re bound to find the right role. Brute: They re strong, resilient, and can stand up to overwhelming odds without breaking a sweat. Commander: They can turn the tide of battle by stealing Health from enemies and giving it to allies. Demolisher: A few well-placed shots can turn any daunting formation into tattered remains. Enforcer: They focus on powerful teamwork attacks and use high-risk, high-reward tactics when alone. Hybrid: Jacks-of-all-trades that are effective at a distance, up close, and against groups of enemies. Longshot: They support melee allies and take out enemies before they ever get a chance to get close. Modifying Character Molds You may be tempted to modify player Character Molds to better suit your idea of how powerful a character should be, but that s not the best idea. Even though the game seems relatively simple on the surface, it has been rigorously balanced based on the player Character Molds as presented. Making any of them stronger or weaker could have wide-reaching effects on battle balance. Threat levels,, and even Effectiveness tables could be drastically changed to the point of being worthless as tools, and you could end up feeling lost. If you feel like your characters are too weak, try making the enemies weaker instead. A weak-feeling character is usually a symptom of enemies that have too high of an, and fragile-feeling characters are going against too many enemies with a high Difficulty rating. Melee - Attack any adjacent target. Diagonals are in range, regardless of movement method. Ranged - Attack a target up to the listed squares away. Targets first in line of sight. Unlimited ammo. Burst - Attack every adjacent enemy at once, allies are immune. Diagonals are in range. Drain - Range attack one target, heal another using damage dealt. Can attack/heal self, allies, enemies. Grenade - Create a ranged burst attack that s centered up to the listed squares away. It damages enemies and allies, including the center square. The number inside the icon tells you how far from the center is hit by the attack.

9 Player Character Molds (Ctd) 2 Melee - Attack any adjacent target. Diagonals are in range, regardless of movement method. Ranged - Attack a target up to the listed squares away. Targets first in line of sight. Unlimited ammo. Burst - Attack every adjacent enemy at once, allies are immune. Diagonals are in range. Drain - Range attack one target, heal another using damage dealt. Can attack/heal self, allies, enemies. Grenade - Create a ranged burst attack that s centered up to the listed squares away. It damages enemies and allies, including the center square. The number inside the icon tells you how far from the center is hit by the attack.

10 Enemy Character Molds Gladiator : Common (6) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo A B C+ Short, Team A++ A+ A Long, Solo C D+ D+ Long, Team A C+ C 28 2 Ranger : Common (8) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo C+ C D+ Short, Team A C+ C Long, Solo A C+ C Long, Team A++ A A Blaster : Common (7) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo C+ A C+ Short, Team A A C+ Long, Solo C+ A C+ Long, Team C+ A C Brawler : Common (8) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo A A C+ Short, Team A+ A+ A Long, Solo C C D+ Long, Team A B C Lancer : Common (9) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo B A C+ Short, Team A A B Long, Solo B B C Long, Team B B C 22 9 Speeder :.9 36 Common (9) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo C A C+ Short, Team C A C+ Long, Solo C A C+ Long, Team C A C+

11 26 2 Enemy Character Molds (Ctd) Viper : Weak () Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo A A B Short, Team A++ A++ A+ Long, Solo D+ D+ D Long, Team C D+ D Viper : 3. 2 Common (7) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo A A A Short, Team A++ A++ A Long, Solo D+ C D+ Long, Team C C D+ 48 Viper : Mighty (2) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo A A B Short, Team A++ A++ A Long, Solo D D+ D Long, Team B C+ C 2 3 Pelter : Weak (0) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo A B C+ Short, Team A B C+ Long, Solo A A C+ Long, Team A A C Pelter : Common (9) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo D+ B C Short, Team A A C+ Long, Solo C A B Long, Team C A B 4 Pelter : Mighty (28) Effectiveness 2 3+ Short, Solo C+ B C+ Short, Team C+ B C+ Long, Solo C+ A B Long, Team C+ A B

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