6th Edition!

[Spudboy]

So....are YOU ticked off as I am?

[archermoo]

So....are YOU ticked off as I am?

Nope.

[Andrew Cermak]

Probably not. 7 years is a reasonable amount of time between editions.

[Lord Mhoram]

I'm not ticked off, but I have really hard time seeing 6th being enough of an improvement to warrant buying all the books again, so soon after I bought them last time.
I'll see what kind of things are going to be done, and I'll look at the rules, but it is by no means and instant sell, but I will give it a chance; but unless the there is a large improvement in the rules (and I don't see that as a possibility, as I really like 5th, a LOT) I see no need to switch. And if there are large changes that aren't improvements, then I won't bother.

[JakSpade]

I'm not ticked off... I'll have to get more info before I make a definite "buy it" or not decision. Hell, if it makes it better for me to push it to my gaming group, I'm all for it. I'm not going to speculate too much on what a 6th edition could even look like, other than maybe it will either be influenced by the gaming community (i.e. everyone has been screaming for less "rules") or it'll be influenced by the MMO.

But that's all I know right now, so I'll remain open until I see more.

jak

[Omegaplex]

Was anybody else here a GURPS 3rd fan? I stopped buying it after 4th was announced, and this smacks seriously close to that. I'm sure it will be all that and a bag of chips - just like Steve Jackson's product - but it's not particularly exciting to have two to three years of retread books (barring more information from the 'big announcements,' of course).

Man, I've become indoctrinated. Now I'm tossing 'the big announcement!' around to tease people, too

[incrdbil]

Looking at the fairly recent tuff I've shelled out money for, I'm not terribly thrilled. I felt that we were being told by TPTB that 6e was a loooong way off, nothing to worry about anytime soon. Now we get this.

Too early to say if I will or won't move along yet. However, there's nothing wrong with 5th edition that comes to mind that I can see needing a new edition fo the rules for, so why shoudl I?

[John-Walton]

shall I fire up the T-Shirt press and start cranking out FRED-HEAD FOREVER togs ?

[arosslaw]

Obviously we won't know everything until the other shoe drops tomorrow. What I'm not getting is any sense of what/why there will be a 6th edition. "We can do it better" is a far cry from "here's what we're going to do better" and until I see that it is too early to really comment.

[Omegaplex]

^ Sign me up!

In all seriousness, looking at the 2009 release list, it's 50% books we all already own.

I think they know this will torque a huge number of people off. I mean, the last half of 2009 is HERO 6th, Champions 6th, Martial Arts 6th, Champions Universe 6th, and Rules Lite 6th.

SO...

I think Steve's sitting back and chuckling while he waits for 'the big announcement' to change all of our outlooks completely on this.

I have a sneaking suspicion that after tomorrow, we'll be excited rather than dismayed.

Steve's just enjoying stirring the pot so he can say "c'mon, did you really think we'd do THAT without a good reason?"

[Michael Hopcroft]

So....are YOU ticked off as I am?

Why should I be ticked off? Seven years between editions seems quite reasonable to me. If I have the money, I'll be picking it up.

(Mind you, that's a pretty big "if" these days....)

[Silverbullet]

I’m very intrigued about 6th edition as long as it doesn’t disavow anything we have now. I’m fine with rules tweaks, etc. besides, we have, what 18mnts to worry about it…

Wow, check it out… saved my 100th comment for the 6th edition…

[Psybolt]

I'm unhappy because I bought most of these books since August. Feels like a waste of money now if everything becomes changed

[Balok]

Some random thoughts from a person who rarely posts...

1) I think it's much too soon to form an opinion about this. We know almost nothing about it beyond that it exists.

2) The discussion here reminds me of the discussion when WoTC announced D&D 4th Edition and SJG announced GURPS 4th Edition: this is new, therefore it is bad. That is far from certain. GURPS 4th was better than 3rd, more organized and had better production values, and it improved the rules, IMO. The jury is still out on D&D 4th, but at least some of what has leaked actually makes sense.

3) Steve, Darren, et. al. have rarely disappointed me. I think they've earned a little slack on this - at least enough slack that I'll wait to learn more before I go to the closet where I store my torches and pitchforks.

4) Games must evolve or they die. Even for well-written games like HERO this is true.

5) Part of that involves looking at how to bring in new customers. And part of THAT means giving them a jumping on point. It may also mean simplifying or modifying the rules for clarity or consistency. I have actually had gamer friends, when I show them FREd, say things like, "Holy *, that book is huge!" If you're familiar with the system it's like an ol friend but if you're not, it's intimidating.

6) Steve has seven more years of design experience under his belt. Isn't it at least possible that he has in his noggin ideas that will make Hero better?

7) A company must stay in business. Pragmatically, that means it must leverage its intellectual property to keep cash flowing. This is not easy to achieve. It is at least part of what drives new editions.

[Captain Obvious]

I'm certainly not thrilled. And I'm wondering how this is going to affect DOJ; if everything for the last half of 2009 is a reprint, unless the 6th Ed rules are mind-blowingly fantastic, I don't see a lot of people paying for updates of what they've already got. Seems like their income during that period of time is going to take a hit.

Anyway, I might get the main rules. Beyond that, I don't feel particularly compelled to get anything else.