opinions of hero products

[tenebre]

i am looking for opnions of the Shadow World stuff put out by ICE for fantasy hero. I heard they really gear towards rolemaster and therefore isnt that grea for fantasy hero players unless you want to convert.

Also what does everyone think about Broken Kingdoms?

and lastly what about these:
Haunted Heroes, The DRagon's Gate, Unkown eagles, and unkown eagles:special ops.

I read these existed but have never seen them.

opinions greatly appreciated.

[Monolith]

I do not play fantasy games, so I cannot comment on them too much. I believe Shadow World was written for Rolemaster though, and then they added Hero System stats into the game to make it usable for both systems.

All the other books you mentioned are Hero Plus products and only available as pdf downloads. All are still available at the online store except for Dragon's Gate. Dragon's Gate has been sold back to Gold Rush Games, and they will probably be producing a paper version sometime late this year.

The two Unknown Eagles books are for Golden Age Champions. They basically are fact books for the war, giving dates and times and places. It is a very good resource if you are planning on playing in a Golden Age campaign, but I have not found much use for them outside of that.

I did not really care for Haunted Heroes. It seemed very generic to me. Maybe it was meant to be, or maybe I'm just not that interested in the horror genre. I'm sure some other can give you better feedback about it that I can though.

Originally posted by tenebre
i am looking for opnions of the Shadow World stuff put out by ICE for fantasy hero. I heard they really gear towards rolemaster and therefore isnt that grea for fantasy hero players unless you want to convert.

Also what does everyone think about Broken Kingdoms?

and lastly what about these:
Haunted Heroes, The DRagon's Gate, Unkown eagles, and unkown eagles:special ops.

I read these existed but have never seen them.

opinions greatly appreciated.

[tenebre]

i cant find them in the online store.

am i missing somehting???


thanks for you opnoin also.

[Monolith]

You are correct. It appears they have all been removed. Apparently DOJ is no-long offering them for sale. I know Dragon's Gate was removed, but I did not know about the others. I guess that solves that problem then.

[EvilGM]

Originally posted by tenebre

Also what does everyone think about Broken Kingdoms?

I like the free map that's available for download on the Free Stuff pages. Of course, I'm kind of biased because I made the map.

It's been a long time since I've looked at my copy of the book, but I remember that I liked it. Now, I have heard of some complaints about the book - about racial stereotyping and so on - but I didn't find the book offesive in the least.

[RPMiller]

Originally posted by tenebre
<snip>
The DRagon's Gate
<snip>
I read these existed but have never seen them.

opinions greatly appreciated.

I have it on very good authority that The Dragon's Gate is approaching completion. It is an excellent suppliment for the San Angelo: City of Heroes world book, but would also be useful for coloring any Chinatown in any city that has supers.
The majority of the characters are martial artists which would also fit them into a Ninja Hero game as well. In a fantasy setting a little bit of GM adjustment would be required, but it could easily be turned into an oriental village. There are several teachers, apothocaries, and temples that could be used for a monk character's background.

In summary I would highly recommend it

[Chuk]

Originally posted by tenebre
i am looking for opnions of the Shadow World stuff put out by ICE for fantasy hero. I heard they really gear towards rolemaster and therefore isnt that grea for fantasy hero players unless you want to convert.

I have a bit of the Shadow World stuff -- it's neat, but it's very heavily geared towards Rolemaster, with mostly just basic stat blocks for FH stuff. I can't remember if it was first or 2nd edition FH, but since it didn't have any spells for everyone, it probably doesn't make much difference.

Worth looking at if you don't mind a little conversion. Some of the work is done for you, but not much. The world and setting are interesting, though, so it could be worth picking up just for that. Is it still available?

[Lord Liaden]

The Shadow World series did have some very interesting concepts in it, but I agree that most of the early books were thin in HERO System stats and mechanics. Later ones did a much better job of writing up characters, creatures and items, though. Spells were costed into the character sheets but specific spells were rarely included. I'd particularly recommend Jaiman: Land of Twilight, and the Emer: The Great Continent boxed set. Both of these provide detailed settings with very extensive HERO writeups for characters, creatures and even gods.

The original core Shadow World boxed set describes the whole planet of Kulthea in considerable detail, including pretty detailed HERO System writeups, although in pre-4E Fantasy HERO terms, which would need a fair amount of conversion. Note that the later version of the Shadow World Master Atlas is exclusively for the Rolemaster system.

If you have access to the second edition of Fantasy HERO (for 4E), that books describes how complete and useful each Shadow World product is for HERO gamers.

[tesuji]

i have a lot of the shadow world stuff.

It was very good quality fantasy product, with excellent maps and detailed background.

i agree that its stats were not hero friendly, however, thats not really a detriment in my eyes. I always restat things for my campaign anyway, so even if the were in hro it would not matter. You get your monies worth.

One note, they are not very "moduleish" presenting a specific adventure but rather they introduce a lot of area info, characters and intrigues as well as story seeds and a stray adventure here and there.

[tiger]

I like the Western Shores from the original FH. They have decide to go away from it when the new version comes out unfortunitly

[tenebre]

Thanks guys!

i am picking up some of the ICE shaow world stuff.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by tenebre
Thanks guys!

i am picking up some of the ICE shaow world stuff.

Make sure you get the older stuff! If you buy the updated material all the HERO System stats were removed from later printings after HERO/ICE went their separate ways.

[AlHazred]

Having played in a Rolemaster Shadow World campaign, I got the chance afterward to look over the Hero System stuff. ICE did try to make their products usable to both Rolemaster and Hero players, but the strong Rolemaster influence of the source material is impossible to ignore in the Hero material they present. I would definitely restat everything if I ran it. Fortunately, the setting is very well described and developed.

At some point ICE produced BladeStorm for tactical battle resolution, and set it in an isolated section of Kulthea. That stuff is also interesting, and worth getting if you find it in the bargain bin.

[tenebre]

thanks for the advice.

i am getting everythign from out of print resellers, and the product numbers match so i hope its the old stuff.