Discourse on Fantasy Hero

[shentino]

What's it all about? What makes it special, and different from generic HERO?

Basically, I'd like a blurb about it. I'm utter newbie at fantasy but was in a few sessions under a GM as Defender in Champions. So, all I'm familiar with is the nuts and bolts of playing.

Please be both verbose and simple.

[Doc Democracy]

I guess that the answer to your question (given that HERO is about being generic) is that there is no difference between bog standard HERO and Fantasy Hero.

The idea behind a genre book like Fantasy Hero is to run through the genre, explaining the variety of ways to tell fantasy stories and the staples within each variety of fantasy.

What the Fantasy Hero book should do for you is aid you in deciding the look and feel of the fantasy game that you want to run and then some hints in how to achieve that look and feel using the HERO system.

This is the USP of HERO. You can have the look and feel that you want in your game, not the one that comes in the box (as with most other games). There is more upfront owrk for the GM depending on how tightly controlled they want the look and feel of the game but it can be ultimately more satisfying to get just what you want out of your game.


Doc

[Thia Halmades]

It's the core text that gives you all the necessary tools to run a Fantasy Campaign using the HERO system. It's design is built around helping you build a character, define a world, develop a magic system, and walk you through the genre tropes of Fantasy RP, as pioneered by d20, but without a lot of the mechanical nuances of that system. If you're familiar with HERO, then using it won't be all that hard.

Fantasy HERO is really an overview of the genre, and how it operates, and how to make best use of the tropes that are in it. There's also an extensive essay in the beginning that details the differences among various Fantasy settings, whether Urban Fantasy, High Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, whichever. it includes rules for mass combat (or mosh combat, depending on what your group calls it), I think there might be a few monster examples, and some character write ups.

What the book does, really, is give you the tools. What it does NOT do is provide an endless list of spells (Fantasy Grimoire I & II) or a complete bestiary (Monsters, Minions & Maruaders, aka MM&M, or the HERO System Bestiary, or either of the Asian Bestiaries (AB I & AB II). Those texts are devoted more too allowing you to pull out monsters for encounters as you see fit.

Fantasy HERO is not a setting book - it does not go into details about Tuala Morn (pending this winter, we think), Valdorian Age or the Turakian Age (both available now) which are the HERO setting books for Fantasy (Valdorian is Sword & Sorcery, Turakian is High Fantasy, IIRC). So the breakdown is really:

- Core text describing basic ideas and how to implement them
- Monster Texts
- Magic/Spellbook texts (based on the Turakian Age, I should mention that)
- Additional rules-specific texts (Hero Combat Handbook, Hero Equipment Guide)

[hancock.tom]

I thought the same thing as the original poster at one point. Then I set about trying to do the grunt work to put together a FH campaign. Holy cow, its a lot of work, even with lots of internet resources.

Fantasy Hero does the legwork when you need the legwork done, with great magic systems, armor systems, etc. PLUS it is absolutely chock full of advice on how to do things if you want to do them yourself.

[hancock.tom]

Damn, I post in a thread and everyone packs up their books and goes home

[Dale A. Ward]

Damn, I post in a thread and everyone packs up their books and goes home

It's the avatar, man... creeps us out, ya know?

[Manic Typist]

Just as a point, we might also offer some tidbits on what is special about Fantasy Hero as a genre.

[ghost-angel]

I'm not entirely sure what shentino is actually asking.

How to play Fantasy Hero as a genre of Hero System. Or what Fantasy, as a whole, is.

A little clarification please?

[Vondy]

Like Ghost-Angel I'm not entirely sure what the question is.

[Old Man]

But Fantasy Hero is the answer, that's for damn sure.

[Susano]

But Fantasy Hero is the answer, that's for damn sure.

I thought the answer was blowin' in the wind?

[lensman]

Simple: Fantasy Hero is prism for the light of imagination & mechanics in order to display the colors of genre.

Verbose: There is a involved history to gaming. Hero is considered by some a third generation system or construction set system. Fantasy hero in that light is a manuel for how to build a fantasy genre with the Hero system.
One can take the same tools and material with physics and make a airplane, car, 18 wheeler or motorcycle.
Rules can be considered physics in gaming. A lot of rules that apply to gritty heroic game that do not or are not applied to a superheroic game.
Fantasy hero is better for utter newbies because it brings into greater clarity those things which, in the authors mind, helps to aid the fantasy genre.

[bigdamnhero]

What's it all about? What makes it special, and different from generic HERO?

I read this as asking “How is a Fantasy Hero game different from the Champions games I’ve played?”

Mechanically, very similar at the core. Characters are built using the same characteristics, skills, powers etc as supers, but on fewer points -- typically 100-150 instead of 350. On the other hand, in many FH games PCs don’t have to pay character points for equipment the way they do in Champions; you can just walk in to a blacksmith’s and buy a sword.

With the exception of spell-casters, most fantasy characters tend to emphasize skills more than most supers. (Yes, I know that’s a gross generalization and doesn’t always apply. But in general.)

Spells are built using the same Powers as superhero abilities, but typically have a lot more Limitations to make them harder to use -- harder for the character, that is, not the player. So for example a super’s Laser Eyebeam and a wizard’s Fire Blast might both be built as Energy Blasts, but the later might require Gestures, Incantations, Require a Skill Roll, etc. So even tho the core mechanics are the same, they “feel” very different.

Basic combat mechanics are the same, but most FH games I’ve played use very different optional rules from Champions: no to Knockback; yes to Hit Location, Bleeding, etc. So the combat tends to feel less “comic book” and more "realistic."

In terms of plot, it varies a lot from campaign to campaign. Many (again, not all) FH games tend to have a smaller focus than most Champions games; the heroes may be a big deal locally, but saving the world is something you work up to, rather than another day on the job.

So short version: basically the same game mechanics, but tweaked to better reflect the fantasy genre. Does that help?

[Killer Shrike]

In most other Fantasy RPGs, the setting, the scope of what is and is not possible, how magic works, what kind of abilities characters can have, etc are all defined by the designers of that game.

If you like the decisions they have made, and dont want to do anything custom then this is perfectly acceptable...in fact, its optimal.

You may even be able to stray a bit from the operating parameters of a particular game, to differing degree based upon the flexibility of a particular system / setting combination. If you like the basic elements of a game, but just want to tweak it a tad this is probably good enough for you.


However, if you have very specific ideas about how your Fantasy game should run, what the setting should be like, what kinds of abilities characters can have, the scope at which the game is played, the way the magic works, and so on then you may find yourself fighting the limitations of other game systems if you try to express your ideas within the confines of their design.

That's where the HERO System comes into its strength for you. You can implement the core HERO rules to express your vision of how Fantasy should be, and all the particulars of how your world works, etc etc. That's what makes it special.

Its also why there is so much diffusion around the idea of Fantasy HERO. There is no such thing as a single unified Fantasy HERO concept that everyone can agree on as the meaning for "Fantasy HERO". Instead there are a nigh-infinite array of implementations of specific combinations of HERO System elements within the broad umbrella of a "fantasy" genre.

Thus a Savage Earth campaign is very different from a San'Dora, Turakian Age, Valodoria Age, GreyHERO, RealmsHERO, RuneHERO, LotRHERO, or HarnHERO campaign, for instance. There are different operating assumptions, different optional rules in use, different levels of "realism" applied, etc.


I refer to the variation between specific implementations as "paradigms", which rest below sub-genres like so: Genre->SubGenre->Paradigm.

This document discusses several generic Paradigms and gives worksheets indicating different operating assumptions as a thinking exercise, and a blank Paradigm Worksheet is also provided so that you can, if you wish, fill it in to reflect your own campaign implementation as a reference document:

Fantasy HERO Paradigms

[CourtFool]

I love you, Killer Shrike, but I can not help but feel like I am studying for a college exam every time I read your stuff.