A HERO Games History

**TheImperialKhan** · Feb 27th, '03, 05:48 PM

Last week I got into a major pissing contest around here in which Derek Hiemforth said that the fans of Danger International had been waiting as long for new material as the Justice Inc players have been. He was mistaken as DI was a major updating and expansion of the old Espionage! and in fact was released 18 months after JI. But he got me thinking.

Just when did things happen at HERO Games? When was each product released? When were the major awards won. When did the company change owners and/or Management? So I got an idea: Let's put together a timeline of sorts for HERO Games listing every release and every major event since HERO was founded. Then we'll turn it over to Ben for inclusion on the FAQ page.

I figured that we can list things by month and year when possible. When it isn't then just by year. I hope you guys are willing to give it a try I think it'll will be interesting.

Since it's my idea I guess I'll start us off...

1981 - Champions
1982 - Champions wins the Charles Roberts Award at Origins 82
1982 - Champions II
1982 - Champions miniatures from Heritage USA
1983 - Champions II wins the Charles Roberts Award at Origins 83
1983 - Espionage!
1983 autumn - 1st edition of Adventurers Club
1984 - Champions 3rd Edition
1984 May - Justice Inc
1984 June - Champions III
1984 August - Trail of the Gold Spike
1985 May - Lands of Mystery
1985 - The Golden Age of Champions by Firebird LTD
1985 November - Danger International
1986 July - The Hero System Beastiary
1988 August - Aaron Allston's Strike Force
1989 February - Star Hero
1989 August - Champions 4th Edition
1989 - Classic Enemies
1990 - Fantasy Hero
1990 - Invasions: Target Earth
1990 - The Olympians
1991 - Western Hero
1992 - Normals Unbound
1992 - Champions Universe
1993 - Dark Champions: Heroes of Vengeance
1993 - Viper
1993 - Justice, Not Law
1994 - An Eye for an Eye
1994 - Corporations
1994 - Golden Age Champions
1995 - Atlantis
1997 - Champions: New Millennium
2002 February? - HERO System 5th Edition
2002 February? - The Ultimate Martial Artist
2002 June - The Hero System Bestiary
2002 July - Champions 5th Edition
2002 August? - HERO system Resource Kit
2002 August? - Champions Universe
2002 September? - Conquerors, Killers and Crooks
2002 November - Star Hero

a ? indicates the month may be wrong for release but that's what the book lists the printing date as.

**Agent Escafarc** · Feb 27th, '03, 05:59 PM

1985(month?) Fantasy Hero
1986(month?) Gadgets (second printing was in September)
1995(month?) Ulimate Mentalist

**Agent Escafarc** · Feb 27th, '03, 06:09 PM

A couple of more:
1990 Champions 3-D
1993 HERO System Almanac 1
1995 HERO System Almanac 2

And as a side note while digging these out I found my rolemaster genre book At Rapier's Point one of my favorite RPG books that I thought was long lost. So thanks Khan for making me get off my behind

***Derek Hiemforth*** · Feb 27th, '03, 06:30 PM

Originally posted by TheImperialKhan
Last week I got into a major pissing contest around here in which Derek Hiemforth said that the fans of Danger International had been waiting as long for new material as the Justice Inc players have been. He was mistaken

Actually, if you go back to the other thread, you'll find that I said DI fans "have also been waiting almost 20 years." I did not say they had been waiting "as long" as JI fans.

As for the timeline, if you check out my list of All Hero Books linked in my sig, it would give us an excellent starting point, since it already lists books by stock number (and therefore essentially chronologically within each company). In my copious spare time (sarcasm), I've been working on modifying the list so that you can sort it in ways other than by publishing company. (So you could sort it by author, by genre, and so on.) I could add year of publication to that so it could be sorted as well. I have a copy of each book on the list, so for me it's just a matter of looking.

**TheImperialKhan** · Mar 1st, '03, 07:37 AM

Derek, Thank you for splitting hairs and torpedoing this thread. It was ever so nice of you. Khan

***Derek Hiemforth*** · Mar 1st, '03, 09:24 AM

Originally posted by TheImperialKhan
Derek, Thank you for splitting hairs and torpedoing this thread. It was ever so nice of you. Khan

I would apologize, except that I don't think I have anything to apologize for, frankly. You said I was mistaken about something; I briefly pointed out that I wasn't mistaken. That's all. The vast majority of my post was agreeing with you and offering to help. I don't think that constitutes "torpedoing" a thread.

**TheImperialKhan** · Mar 1st, '03, 12:37 PM

OK, I'll spell everything out.

I said that JI players have been waiting almost twenty years for new stuff.

You said that DI players have also been waiting almost twenty years for new stuff.

That sounds to me like you're saying that they've been waiting just as long. That's what I meant by "splitting hairs".

But, as I showed above, they haven't been. DI, itself an update and big-time expansion of Espionage!, came out 18 months after JI. Thus the JI players have in fact been waiting longer. The last JI supplement Lands of Mystery came out six months before DI did. Also a lot of the material from Dark Champions and An Eye For An Eye can be directly applied to DI. Oh some of it can be adapted, that's the key word BTW, to JI, but not that much really. And that was only ten years ago.

As for torpedoing the thread. Although I know it wasn't intentional. You didn't really leave that much for anyone else to do, on the surface at least. And although a number of people have viewed the thread, no one has contributed anything since. I guess they feel it's all been done already. It hasn't of course, there's still the dates, awards and office politics to include, but the sheer magnitude of the material you've added kind of brought things to a screeching halt before they had really gotten started.

I'm not angry mind you, just kinda sad that the information overload seems to have stopped what could have been an interesting thread, that's all. Sorry if I bashed.

Oh and Agent Escafarc, thanks for posting and I'm glad you found your book. Hmmm "At Rapier's Point" I used that as the title of an old Flashing Blades campaign once upon a time. Thanks for reminding me about it. It was a pretty good campaign

**keithcurtis** · Mar 1st, '03, 01:22 PM

IK,
If somebody said you were mistaken, and mis-quoted you, wouldn't you respond?
I think the hairsplitting is being done on your side.

BTW, "thanks Derek for putting together an excellent list."

Keith "sheesh!" Curtis

**DoctorItron** · Mar 1st, '03, 03:01 PM

Originally posted by TheImperialKhan
Derek, Thank you for splitting hairs and torpedoing this thread. It was ever so nice of you. Khan

Khan, chill. Derek said "it would give us an excellent starting point". He didn't ask people to stop responding.

Should Derek not reply to questions when he has the answer?

To echo Keith, sheesh...

**Nato** · Mar 1st, '03, 04:08 PM

Yeah, sheesh.

**TheImperialKhan** · Mar 1st, '03, 07:09 PM

When did Saturday become "Bash the Imperial Khan Day?"

This is two weeks in a row now.
I certainly didn't come into this "guns a-blazing".
My responses have been limited to the discussion on hand.
They can hardly be called inflammatory.
So just what is it with you guys?

Is it me?
Do I have bad breath?
Is there a cow flap hanging from my boot?
Has someone taped an "Asshole" sign on my back?

What?

**Nato** · Mar 1st, '03, 07:44 PM

Originally posted by TheImperialKhan

Has someone taped an "Asshole" sign on my back?

Yeah - YOU did.

***TechnoViking*** · Mar 2nd, '03, 12:20 AM

Originally posted by TheImperialKhan
When did Saturday become "Bash the Imperial Khan Day?"

Since never. You come across as having a chip on your shoulder when you post to the boards. Some of your post have been hostile toward Hero Games and other fans on the boards. Yes, you have been flamed in return. Is that right, probably not, but that is life on the internet.

The Hero Games board is one of my favorite hang outs, because it remain very civil in a sea of internet crap.

My advise, when you want to discuss/debate something, that's great, just lose the "I'm always right" and "Your wrong and let me tell you are wrong hatefully" attitude in your posts.

Maybe you should have a friend or family read though your old posts. Having a third party opinion outside the debate may give your a non-bias answer.

Just friendly advice, take it if you like, flame me if you must.

Mike

**KA.** · Mar 2nd, '03, 03:31 AM

Originally posted by TheImperialKhan
When did Saturday become "Bash the Imperial Khan Day?"

This is two weeks in a row now.
I certainly didn't come into this "guns a-blazing".
My responses have been limited to the discussion on hand.
They can hardly be called inflammatory.
So just what is it with you guys?

Is it me?
Do I have bad breath?
Is there a cow flap hanging from my boot?
Has someone taped an "Asshole" sign on my back?

What?

Hello Khan and welcome to the boards.

You can't tell it from my current post count, but I have been on the Hero boards for several years now, and I started playing Hero when the first boxed set came out. As far as the boards, I am not a real old-timer like Champsguy, Derek, and some of the others, but I have been around long enough to get a decent grasp of things.

This has always been a very polite, civil, board. It has also been a great place to get answers to questions about the Hero system.
This was even true during a period of several years when it looked like the Hero system was on the way to extinction. During that time, a lot of people were here on the boards "keeping the faith" even when it looked like there was no Hero System to support.
If you have ever read or watched "Fahrenheit 451", I am sure you will remember the "living books". People who, due to book burning, kept great literature alive my memorizing it word for word.
For many years, some of us Hero fans felt that way.
Like there was very important information that was being kept alive only by our memory and our willpower.
Because of this, people here tend to be sticklers for detail.

It does not mean that people will judge you harshly for making a mistake, but it does mean that if you are going to get nit-picky in an argument on Hero, you had better have some pretty worthwhile nits to pick, because most of the arguments about stuff around here have already been hashed out years ago, and there are a fair number of people around who remember the answers.

You can imagine the reaction you would get if you walked up to the "living book" who's job it was to memorize "Tom Sawyer", and started the conversation with:
"Are you sure that's Tom Sawyer?
I thought it was Todd Sawyer!
Hey everybody, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about!
The book is Todd Sawyer and his friend is named Gooseberry Finn!"
You might get rather a heated argument started there, too.

I'm not saying all this to try to "shout you down" or tell you what you can and can't say to anyone around here. For one thing it is not my place, and for another, I wouldn't want to do that if I could.

I'm just trying to offer a little insight into why some of the people around here can seem a bit touchy.

You sound like a long-time Hero fan, which puts you in some fairly distinguished company. And considering that the group is not that large, there is no reason why all of us cannot get along, at least to the point of civility.

That is all I have to say about that.

KA

**Monolith** · Mar 2nd, '03, 06:15 AM

Originally posted by TheImperialKhan
Is it me?
Do I have bad breath?
Is there a cow flap hanging from my boot?
Has someone taped an "Asshole" sign on my back?

What?

It is because your posts are too aggressive. Every time you type something it comes off as "I'm right, you're wrong." You go out of your way to try and prove everyone else wrong; even when what you are try to prove is a mistake on your part for misreading something.

If you re-read the very first paragraph in this tread you will see where all the problems came from. That first paragraph was an attack on Derek; and your attack was based entirely on you misinterpreting what he had posted in another thread. If you had just dropped that first paragraph you would have gotten answers from people who were interested, and the people who were not interested would have left the thread alone.

In this thread you started out being the "Asshole", whether you realized it or not. You are probably not a bad person, but you really do need to think about your posts before you hit Submit Reply.