Cyber Hero Author Suggestion

[Steve]

As we come into the end of 2004, with 2005 just around the corner, and plans start to be made for 2006, I would like to put in a suggestion (and a sincere recommendation) that Michael Surbrook (Susano) be given the task of penning Cyber Hero.

Do I have any seconds on this suggestion? If called upon to do this, Susano, will you serve the Hero community?

Does anyone have other preferences for who the author should be?

[Lord Mhoram]

Seconded

[gewing]

I've wanted that for two years!!!

[Steve Long]

In general, with genre books and Ultimate books, going forward I prefer to write them myself, or have them written in-house, unless there's some subject (e.g., astronomy in SH) that I'd rather get an outside authority for. It's much easier on me thataway.

[Steve]

In general, with genre books and Ultimate books, going forward I prefer to write them myself, or have them written in-house, unless there's some subject (e.g., astronomy in SH) that I'd rather get an outside authority for. It's much easier on me thataway.

In 2005's list, I see you are writing 9 out of the 22 books shown, which requires you to crank out something new every 6 weeks, in addition to acting as line editor to every product coming through. To be honest, that doesn't seem like the best or most efficient use of your time as an editor, and I have this nagging concern that with you authoring that many genre and ultimate books means that the Hero System will only reflect YOUR interpretation of how it should be used to simulate characters and genres. There is also the risk that such a heavy production load would eventually tax your creativity, and then drek would start coming out.

Well, I'm probably the lone voice crying in the wilderness over this, but I think you are making a mistake. My hope is that this is not due to some egomaniacal desire to control, that you see only your interpreation of the rules as legitimate.

[Steve]

I think the choice to write in-house is essentially an economic one. In the only Hero chat I attended Darren Watts was discussing the poor sales of some of the recent books like Arcane Adversaries. By keeping the writing in-house the company eliminates the cost of the author, which even at 5 cents per word can be a substantial amount of money on a 160 page book. I suppose it still comes down to economics. But if sales of some books are falling it might be because Hero Games is not really producing the books that the majority of fans what to buy. Perhaps a reevaluation of the line needs to be made. That's for Steve and Darren to decide.

I can see how economics would play into who writes what. I don't really think Steve Long is an egomaniac, but he has posted things on the boards which leads me to conclude he has a profoundly stubborn nature and that he refuses to be convinced of other points of view. My concern is that this attitude could poison the Hero line and stagnate it, if the fans aren't buying what he has to say on a subject.

I do agree that it is nice to see other official interpretations within the system. There were things Steve Long wrote in 5E that I never would have thought of and I am sure there are thing other authors write that Steve Long has not thought of as well. One singular vision can tend to stagnate things at times. That is part of the reason I'm looking forward to Scott's new "Villany Amok" book.

I am too. He is one of the authors I've been looking forward to seeing more from. Every six months or so, I also feel the need to agitate for Hero to finally produce Scott's campaign book Gestalt Universe.

I think the only thing which really bothers me about the current Hero line of products is that the genres Steve Long favors tend to get larger books with more information than the ones he does not seem to favor. Fantasy Hero, Dark Champions, The Turakian Age, now Hudson City are all substantial books. The idea that Hudson City is larger than Millennium City and Vibora Bay combined seems to be a slight disservice to the Champions fans, who it seems are the majority of the Hero Games' fan base. I think an extra 100+ pages of both Millennium City and Vibora Bay would have gone a long way toward helping the Champions Universe fans better understand those environments. Not that Hudson City does not deserve the pages, but I think all the Champions books deserve the pages as well.

I agree with you on this, and it goes back to the point I made earlier. I would have loved to see more detail on Millenium City and Vibora Bay, but it looks like I will have to rip out sections of Hudson City to use to fill out blank spots in those other two cities instead. Favoring lines Mr. Long likes at the cost of supporting others that may have more demand among the fans just seems to be a poor marketing decision. However, I also can say with fair certainty that no amount of griping on the boards will sway him to do differently. We are all at the mercy of Mr. Long's whims in this. If he decides that Hero should do an entire year of Dark Champions or Pulp Hero stuff, with only a few token books for other things, then that is what will happen. The fans can scream, but unless there is some kind of fiscally tangible Hero fandom reaction, nothing will change that outcome.

The "bread & butter" of the company seems to be getting the smaller, and yet slightly more expensive per page, books. Perhaps that is the marketing plan: more smaller Champions books so that fans buy more. Either way I do hope we see some 200-300 page Champions Universe books next year to match the other genre's books instead of the 128-160 page books we are currently getting.

I would like to see more such products as well. I am trying to support Hero by buying as much as I can, but I refuse to buy products that I can't use at all.

Like I said in my earlier post, maybe I am the lone voice crying out in the wilderness. Maybe the Hero fans want to see more of Steve Long's writings, not less. Maybe the reason he is writing so much is simple economics, not ego. I don't know. I just see potential problems in how things are being done.

[Hugh Neilson]

On the one hand, variety is the spice of life. On the other, however, too many cooks spoil the broth.

I like having the consistency of Steve's vision in the overall rules, including Utimate and genre sourcebooks. Try playing a "free for all" d20 game where anything from any sourcebook, whoever the author, is accepted. No consistency.

I also find Steve rarely, if ever, offers up "the one way to do this" in Hero, but presents a number of alternatives. He is also very clear and repetetive (in a good way) that these are his rules, the way he would play, and if you want to play differently, you should do so (unlike one RPG author who is on record saying "if you vary the rules, you're not playing MY game"). Common sense, fun and balance in your campaign trumps anything Steve says in his books.

I'm not saying a freelance author would sink a given genre. I do think Steve, and Hero, have reviewed the alternatives, and formulated a business plan that includes keeping rules books and genre books in house, not just made the decision at random.

[GestaltBennie]

Well, I'm happy with the current unified vision - there's also, however, diversity that can be found in quite a few areas.

First, of course, there's a truckload of free material on these boards, much of it close enough to professional quality (and better than a lot of stuff from the old days!) that it should fit well into a lot of campaigns.

Second, there's Digital Hero. It's monthly, it's well-done, and at $3 for 64 pages with a ten issue subscription, it's a great bargain.

Third, there's third party books. Supporting books like Omlevex and (I hope) Gestalt will encourage authors to license Hero and increase your choices.

Fourth, if you don't mind doing conversions, there's a lot of cool third party books coming out for Mutants and Masterminds/Superlink (including Dave Mattingley's highly regarded Algernon Files). Some of it is truly innovative stuff, and there's going to be a lot of it in coming months.

So I don't think diversity's much of a problem at the moment. And neither (thankfully) is quality. Frankly, my big problem's getting the money to buy them all. ;-)

[OddHat]

While I am certainly loking forward to Gestalt, I thought folks might like a link to Omlevex: http://www.spectrum-games.com/omlevex/

I've been thinking about picking it up for a while.

[BobGreenwade]

Well, I'm probably the lone voice crying in the wilderness over this, but I think you are making a mistake. My hope is that this is not due to some egomaniacal desire to control, that you see only your interpreation of the rules as legitimate.

It's not quite that. Steve has mentioned in the past that he and the other DOJ guys try to write as many of the books themselves as possible; that way they only have to pay themselves the same salary they'd get otherwise, whereas a freelancer (such as myself or Mike Surbrook) would have to be paid royalties. That part of it's a financial decision.

Among the DOJ staff writers, Steve's probably the best qualified to write the core rules books (genre and Ultimate).

That said, Steve, should you change your mind about writing the Cyber Hero subgenre book yourself, I'll add my voice to support for Mike being the author.

[rjcurrie]

To be honest, I'm not sure that Michael would be a good choice to write a Cyber Hero corebook. Michael's strengths would appear to be in creating characters and putting together an interesting world to play in. And neither of these things are really in a Hero core book. It would make more sense to have Michael write a setting book for Cyber Hero.

On the other hand, should Hero decide to take the Ninja Hero approach of treating CyberHero as a sub-genre book that discusses the genre and provides a setting and some villlains, then perhaps Michael would be a good choice.

[Blue]

I'm not worrieed about Steve's pace. He's a remorseless writin' machine! He's got nothing to do but write all day, check to make sure his pizza I.V. is hooked up, and write more unexpected books in his spare time.

[Susano]

To be honest, I'm not sure that Michael would be a good choice to write a Cyber Hero corebook. Michael's strengths would appear to be in creating characters and putting together an interesting world to play in. And neither of these things are really in a Hero core book. It would make more sense to have Michael write a setting book for Cyber Hero.
.

In other words: KAZEI 5?

On the other hand, should Hero decide to take the Ninja Hero approach of treating CyberHero as a sub-genre book that discusses the genre and provides a setting and some villlains, then perhaps Michael would be a good choice.

I, myself, am retroactively, disappointed with what I wrote for NINJA HERO. After looking at FANTASY HERO and DARK CHAMPIONS I wish I could go back and redo, modeling the book's layout more after those two genre books. I think it would come off much better, with even more "source" for the genre and more in-depth material relating to what its all about. Of course, this doesn't mean I think what I did is crap. I mean, it was my first major writing project of the sort, after all. It's just that each book builds on what comes before, and being able to do NH after FH and DC would have made it that much better.

[Susano]

Do I have any seconds on this suggestion? If called upon to do this, Susano, will you serve the Hero community?

Steve and I have already talked about this subject. You saw his reply. And to be honest, while I'd love to do it (who wouldn't), right now I don't have the time (2 jobs, college, and so on).

That said, I have been revising the KAZEI 5 setting. If you are interested in hearing more about that, contact me off list.

[Enforcer84]

In other words: KAZEI 5?



I, myself, am retroactively, disappointed with what I wrote for NINJA HERO. After looking at FANTASY HERO and DARK CHAMPIONS I wish I could go back and redo, modeling the book's layout more after those two genre books. I think it would come off much better, with even more "source" for the genre and more in-depth material relating to what its all about. Of course, this doesn't mean I think what I did is crap. I mean, it was my first major writing project of the sort, after all. It's just that each book builds on what comes before, and being able to do NH after FH and DC would have made it that much better.

So, a revised Ninja Hero then?