Hero Factor

Hero Factor (HF) represents the character's overall experience, competency, and power level. Hero Factor determines the character's Hero Dice and the number of character points (CP) the player gets for character creation is based on starting Hero Factor.

Hero Factor	Starting CP	Hero Dice	Power Level	Example
1-2	Hero Factor x 5	1	Average Joe/Jane	R.J. MacReady, Mia Wallace
3-5	Hero Factor x 5	2	Everyday Hero	Elvis Presley, Sissy Hankshaw
6-10	Hero Factor x 5	3	Adventurer	Wyatt Earp, Maid Marian
11-15	Hero Factor x 5	4	Big Damn Hero	Snake Plissken, The Bride
16+	Hero Factor x 5	5	Super Hero	Ego The Living Planet, Venus

Starting Hero Factor

While grinding your way up from a simple peasant to a mighty hero is integral to some genres (most notably the Fantasy Adventure Game and Video Game genres), most fictional stories either skip the "killing local livestock to level up" phase of the hero's career altogether or fast forward through it with a brief origin story and maybe a training montage. That being the case, there's no reason for PCs to start out at Hero Factor 1 and grind their way up to the default power level of the genre. Instead, the GM should decide what Hero Factor fits the game they're running and let the PCs start there. The fine details of the characters' pasts can be filled in later with flashbacks, role-playing, and even exposition dumps in extreme cases. This section provides some suggestions for deciding the best Hero Factor for your game.

Average Joe/Jane (Hero Factor 1-2)

In addition to being the default starting point for "claw your way up from nothing" stories, Hero Factor 1 is usually the starting point for protagonists in stories that fall outside of the adventure genre. If you're running a game where the heroes are (or at least begin the story as) regular people, this is the Hero Factor for you.

• Common Genres: Documentary, Fantasy Adventure Game, Legal Drama, Kids' Show, Medical Drama, Monster Movie, Police Procedural, Romantic Comedy, Slasher Flick, Sit-Com, Teen Drama, Video Game
• Sample Characters: Punky Brewster, Al Bundy, Dr. Johnny Fever, Andy Griffith, Jonathan Harker, Nurse Carol Hathaway, Julius Levinson, Sam Mallone, Zack Morris, Detective John Munch, Rose Nylund, Sydney Prescott (first two Scream movies), Fred Sanford, Christine Sullivan, Mary Ann Summers, Brenda Walsh, Ash Williams (Evil Dead), Jeff Winger

Everyday Hero (Hero Factor 3-5)

Everyday heroes don't seek out adventure, excitement, and weirdness, but it tends to find them. This is a good starting Hero Factor for "realistic" action-adventure stories and stories about supposedly regular people who constantly find themselves in bizarre situations.

• Common Genres: 80s Drifter Show, Absurdist Comedy, Cop Show, Crime Fiction, Film Noir, Frontier Tale, Detective Story, Haunted House Story, Historical Drama, Kid/Teen Action-Adventures, Mocumentary, Murder Mystery, Reality TV, Soap Opera
• Sample Characters: Gomez Addams, Kate Beckett, The Bluth Family, Piper Chapman, Velma Dinkley, Marlena Evans, Jessica Fletcher, Joe Exotic, Pee Wee Herman, Laura Holt, Laura Ingalls, Sheriff Lobo, BJ McKay, Mork, Abed Nadir, Frank Poncherello, Sidney Prescott (Scream 3 +), Dr. Michaela Quinn, Deandra Reynolds, John Shaft, Fin Shepard (Sharknado 1-2), Silent Bob, Homer Simpson, Tony Soprano, Nigel Tufnel, Charlie Utter, Vincent Vega, Ash Williams (Army of Darkness)

Adventurer (Hero Factor 6-10)

Adventurers put themselves in dangerous situations, either by choice or out of some sense of obligation. While the characters for this Hero Factor are usually normal (or at least start out that way), the world the inhabit takes liberties with reality as we know it and can be explicitly weird. This is the default Hero Factor range for most action movies and low-key or gritty genre fiction.

• Common Genres: Action Movie, Archaeological Adventure, Occult Investigation, Pirates, Post-Apocalypse, Space Exploration, Spy Thriller, Swashbuckler, Sword & Sorcery, Time Travel, War Story, Western
• Sample Characters: Dr. Samuel Beckett, Jason Bourne, Bullet Tooth Tony, Laura Croft, Brisco County Jr., Cherry Darling, Rick Deckard, Fafhrd, Indiana Jones, Captain James T. Kirk, Ted "Theodore" Logan, Machete, John McClane, Maggie (Greene) Rhee, Malcolm Reynolds, Ellen Ripley, Max Rockatansky (Mad Max), Dana Scully, Fin Shepard (Sharknado 3+), Arya Stark, William Thatcher, Dominic Toretto (early movies), Abraham Van Helsing, Dean Winchester (early seasons)

Big Damn Hero (Hero Factor 11-15)

While this Hero Factor range may maintain some pretense of "realism," it is always trumped by dramatic concerns and the Rule of Cool. While extremely competent "normal humans" are certainly present at this power level, they tend to be exception rather than the rule. Big Damn Heroes often have magical powers, alien abilities, supernatural bloodlines, beneficial mutations, and other weird traits. Even the regular humans are often have reality-stretching advantages. For example, they may be The Chosen One, The World's Greatest at whatever they do, or the beneficiary of massive support networks, unimaginable wealth, or super-science gadgets.

• Common Genres: Arthurian, Cyberpunk, Epic Poem, Heroic Fantasy, Hong Kong Action, Monster Hunter, Mythology/Folklore, Post-Apocalypse, Space Opera, Spy Movie, Street Level Superheroes, Supernatural Romance, Teen Super-heroes, Teen Wizards
• Sample Characters: Alice (Resident Evil), Buckaroo Banzai, Batgirl, Beowulf, James Bond, The Bowler, Chev Chelios, Katniss Everdeen, John Hartigan, Jessica Jones, Sir Lancelot, Luna Lovegood, Jessica Hamby, Robin Hood, Max Rockatansky (Road Warrior onward), Han Solo, Buffy Summers, River Tam, Tank Girl, Dominic Toretto (later movies), Ash Williams (Ash vs. Evil Dead), Dean Winchester (later seasons)

Super Hero (Hero Factor 16+)

This hero factor range is reserved for extremely powerful characters who almost certainly have an array of fantastical powers. At this power level, the sorts of challenges that characters face in most RPGs are increasingly difficult to keep interesting. Therefore, the focus of adventures tends to shift from overcoming challenges to grappling with difficult decisions that often have a far-reaching impact. At this power level, characters may lead armies, negotiate intergalactic treaties, and battle cosmic threats.

• Common Genres: Cartoon, Fairy Tale, Grimdark, High Fantasy, Kaiju (with PC monsters), Mecha, Mythology, Science Fantasy, Super-Hero
• Sample Characters: Captain Marvel, Coyote Tango, Daffy Duck, Dracula, Eris, Gamera, Gandalf, Goku, He-Man, Optimus Prime, Santa Claus, Superman, Taarna the Last Taarakian, Daenerys Targaryen, Yoda