Emotional Responses to 6th Edition (NOW EMO-FRIENDLY)

[KawangaKid]

Before the bashing commences, I do applaud the "let's move forward" philosophy of HERO, despite being really happy with Hero5th and Hero5th Revised.

I'm starting this thread primarily because there ARE a flood of immediate emotional responses to seeing the 6th Edition announcement, and they shouldn't simply be ignored. I know you can't please everyone, but HERO Systems fans are a powerful resource for promoting the game in the Online arena too so here's hoping this helps the company develop plans to overcome these challenges. These are the marketing and business challenges that HERO must address to help 6th Ed's success.

Here are mine:

1. "Oh no! They're going WOTC on us!" This was assuaged by the stated principles in this discussion board, but there's a fear that after we get comfortable with 6th, 7th may be months a way (I exaggerate).

2. "Oh no! All my old stuff is now outmoded bat$#!+ now!" Despite the statements to the contrary, this is a real fear - What about my collection of ULTIMATE (stuff)? The genre stuff is more easily re-toolable, but then again, why should I buy Fantasy HERO again? Maybe they'll just release "rules upgrades" for all the Genre book fantasy bits?

3. "Hey, maybe the rules will be streamlined / changed / otherwise improved!" Hey, I like fiddling with the rules, and even like shifting them in-campaign to reflect 'changes to reality' that are momentary or permanent. One thing I really liked in the much-maligned Fuzion set of rules was the Dials and Switches - a neat shorthand that allows you to specify which options and powerscales you were using in your game.

4. "I need more money!" Then again, I always feel this.

5. "Maybe Sidekick will be part of the marketing philosophy!" I like the smaller books for beginners. Makes it easier to ease newbies into the rules.

I'll try to go through the rest of the threads to mine what others have said.

(Edit) ADDED:

A. "I hope they remove / change / add this!" Curiously, many people also are hoping for changes to the 'canon' rules in the toolkit. Or perhaps they want certain new options to be added to the rules.

B. "Will 6E help or hinder new people joining the hobby / using HERO for RPGs?" And a lot are also wondering if the new version will drive people away from the hobby (and the HERO set of games) or pull them away from it.

[GloryFox]

You know,,, I just bought 6 copies of the Character Creation handbook this weekend to teach my son and his friends how to play the game. These rules are not hard to learn and the soft covers for the product are very nice. I have some new players moving in because they won't touch any WoTC products again.

The timing for this is very bad IMO.

[nexus]

Emotionally, I am not pleased with choice. The majority of the proposed changes strike me as bad ideas or at best "meh." I'm willing to look it over when it happens but right now I am not thrilled and if much of what is planned comes to past I may end up parting ways with Hero which saddens me.

Oddly, the thing I dread the most is the least likely to happen that being a push towards making Hero a "Forge-y" narrativist game.

[Enforcer84]

I can't say I'm fond of many of the changes being bandied about. But I'll wait and see.

[Pattern Ghost]

I'm a little concerned with some of the changes leading to point inflated character sheets. I see one design goal being getting rid of character sheet clutter, but some of the ideas, like getting rid of figured characteristics seem likely to lead to a bloated sheet.

On the other hand, Steve's a pretty smart guy, so I'll take a wait and see approach.

[Enforcer84]

I see "Ease of use" and "increased granularity" mutually exclusive. But I've been known to be wrong.

[Pattern Ghost]

I see "Ease of use" and "increased granularity" mutually exclusive. But I've been known to be wrong.

You said it better than me. But must spread some rep before I can hit ya again.

[incrdbil]

I see "Ease of use" and "increased granularity" mutually exclusive. But I've been known to be wrong.

I see increasd granualirity as one of those fads that, years later, you are still trying to live down. Sort of like 70's disco albums music that turns up in your collection when friends are over.


Rolemaster..aftemath..more granularity than passing kidney stones, and about as enjoyable to play rules-wise.

[Enforcer84]

I'll admit to being a bit shellshocked. I mean I've been in every sticky thread....that didn't come out right...but anyway, I've read them all and each proposed change is, if they were to be gathered all together and presented as the final product, rather dishearteningly different.


That said, the discussion is interesting and I trust DOJ to guide HERO. We'll see. I consider myself nervously optimistic with occasional flashes of panic. And a dash of snark.

[GloryFox]

Sorry I'm still at the Flashes of Panic Stage. I get the humble job of informing my Friday night compatriots the news of the hour. We are a bunch of middle aged overworked grumpy old men with teenage kids who are just now getting into the role playing games. This will not be good news to them. They are still having a fit over WoTC choice of direction, and Steve Jackson's games for going 4th ed. Other than FUSION Champions has been fairly stable and a good working system. Sorry to see it go (after looking at the purposed changes) especially since the fan base revived it only what seemed a few short years ago.

[Enforcer84]

Well, we should wait to see what changes are actually on the horizon. I mean some of the QA segments Steve has done are contrary or don't make sense if the question asked prior or after came to pass. I believe right now he's laying it all out and seeing what there is.


That said, it's not like you guys can't continue to play 5th. Heck I could translate the fuzion Champions characters to 4th ed. So you might not even miss out on any of the new material much... I dunno.



And at least you get to play. The last Champions game I ran was in 2005, the last one I played in was...1997?

I've been amusing myself writing up comic book characters and turning all our old campaigns into a wannabe world book.

[KawangaKid]

On further reflection, Hero Games has pretty much overcome the distaste I had with the "New Millenium" problems and lack of support that hampered it. Hero Games currently has a sizable balance in my trust of them and their directions so I'm waiting to see how things develop.

I'm quite happy to see that the company is open to our feedback, because I want to HELP in the development of 6th Ed. I don't want the game to veer sharply away from the things that I like with it, and so I'm hesitant to post until I can gather my arguments yea or nay for each item in some sort of understandable structure.

That being said, my worst fear is NOT that Hero Games will lose me as a fan - I'll always have 5th Ed / 5th Ed Revised.

My worst fear is that the changes will not:
(1) retain enough support of the current fanbase of the Game System to help the system and company thrive;
(2) attract a sufficient new fanbase to the Game System to help the system and company thrive.

[devlin1]

Oddly, the thing I dread the most is the least likely to happen that being a push towards making Hero a "Forge-y" narrativist game.

Given the people and system involved, I highly doubt this would come to pass. You'd have an easier time turning lead into gold.

[James Gillen]

I wish my lawn was emo so it would cut itself.

jg

[Killer Shrike]

Wow, a lot of "change is bad!" posts.

Im of the opposite opinion.

IMO Evolution is generally a good thing; Progress is generally a good thing. If anything I read the threads and I see much more of Steve saying "could change this...but not gonna" than I prefer. I'm not advocating chucking it all and starting over, but I think it is very possible to make some significant mechanical / mathematical fixes and improvements that will ultimately make the game stronger. I also think its possible to go even further and make some changes that might seem dramatic at first but that will improve the systems ability for us to use it to run and play "more fun" and still very "HERO-ific" games.