MONSTERS, MINIONS, AND MARAUDERS And SIDEKICK Now Available For Playtesting!

[Steve Long]

Just a quick note to let the Digital Hero subscribers know that we've just made two manuscripts available for playtesting:

Monsters, Minions, And Marauders, our FH monsters book, and

Sidekick, our "HERO System teaching tool" cut-down, simplified version of the HERO System rules (75% less text than other leading brands! ;) ).

[GestaltBennie]

Sidekick?!!!

I wasn't expecting that one until 2005?

Okay Steve, you've officially floored me.

Scott

[Lord Liaden]

Long, you sneaky devil! You never even hinted that Sidekick was in the forecast!

This one I gotta check out.

[Steve Long]

Well, gee, I have to do something in my spare time.... ;)

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Steve Long
Well, gee, I have to do something in my spare time.... ;) What, and the Online USPD isn't good enough for you? :p ;)

[Bazza]

With the Hero System 5th Edition being nicknamed Fred and "Hero lite" being nicknamed "Sidekick" due to the reference to Champions and the superhero genre, it doesn't seem to me the best fit. Hero lite deserves to be known as "Barney" -- Fred Flinstone's loyal sidekick.

When one thinks of Fred (Mr Long's prefered spelling*) one next thinks of Barney. One can't exist without the other. :) And yes it is called "The Flinstones" because Fred is the main guy (or game system) not Barney.

So what does Herodom Assembled think about my proposal about Hero lite being nicknamed "Barney"?

Edit: * to quote Steve: That'd be "Fred." (http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/CompanyQuestions/000203.html) (second post down on the url'd thread.)

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by Bazza
So what does Herodom Assembled think about my proposal about Hero lite being nicknamed "Barney"?

Ehh.

No offence, Bazza; your rationale is very logical. But since it's my impression that the book/document is going to be known officially as the HERO System Sidekick, not "Hero Lite," I really don't think another nickname is necessary. "FREd" was pithier and catchier than HERO System Fifth Edition, but "Sidekick" is already pithy and catchy enough by itself.

Besides, "Barney" always makes me think of that toddler-brainwashing dinosaur. ("Shudder")

[JmOz]

Well there is one simple test for a nick name:


OHHHH Steve

What should the nickname be?

Here I will help you out:

"As long as you download it I don't care if you call it _______________"

[Bazza]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden
Besides, "Barney" always makes me think of that toddler-brainwashing dinosaur. ("Shudder") Oops, good point, and one I didn't consider. I guess they used "Barney" as "Dino" was already taken ;)

[BobGreenwade]

For my money, if Steve were to ever revive the annual Hero System Almanacs, that could be referred to as the Book of Additional Rules Needed Every Year. ;)

[TechnoViking]

Originally posted by Bazza

So what does Herodom Assembled think about my proposal about Hero lite being nicknamed "Barney"?

And I shall call it Mini-Fred.

Mike Evil

[Balok]

Originally posted by Steve Long
Well, gee, I have to do something in my spare time.... ;)

Spare time?

Don't you have a Romulan SRM to write for the TrekRPG.net folks?

Spare time, indeed!

:D

[Steve Long]

Nope, the Romulan SRM is written. I need time to edit and update it, though, and that's hard to come by when I have so many Hero-related things I can do instead. ;)

[Nightshade]

Steve, you have spare time??? And you are writing books for some other fly by night operation :D ???

We must have failed, as we must not be feeding our need for HERO goodness fast enough to keep you busy!

Perhaps we could get some Fantasy setting material faster than scheduled? Or a second Grimoire? You know, another Ultimate Series book may be a good seller....

Nightshade

[Agent 537]

It may have been discussed elsewhere, but I'm interested in what the estimated price for the Sidekick might end up being. I'm thinking I might buy multiple copies as rewards for players in an online game I help administer.

Given that the final price may well be subject to change, what ballpark figure are we looking at?

[Steve Long]

Well, these are very preliminary estimates, and definitely subject to change, but probably something around $5-10 for a printed copy (depends on what it costs us to print it) and $2-3 for a PDF download. We'd like to keep the prices as low as reasonably possible, for obvious reasons, but we definitely need to at least cover expenses. ;)

[Talon]

Would this be printed copies sent out via regular channels to game stores?

[Steve Long]

That's entirely up to the game stores. We'd certainly make the product available to distributors, but whether they order it, based on whether stores order it, is another matter altogether. Guardians Of Order's recent Tri-Stat DX release, which is pretty similar, is sold through stores at a $9.99 retail price point, so I suspect we'd get at least some orders, but you never can tell.