Is Hero still your "go-to" rpg system?

[Christopher R Taylor]

Well ideally you need both: the setting to put the adventures in, and the adventures to carry out in the setting.  The setting gives the GM content to work with and the adventures give the players something to do in that setting

[Utensil]

Most of my players just do not like Math. So the default system has been D&D 5e (they like fantasy). But for my RWBY campaign I use Hero Game system as it best handles unique abilities of Huntsmen and Huntresses.

[Ninja-Bear]

I think a game set back when the Eldar Worms were on the Earth would be fun! I think it would be sword and sorcery but you could add fantastic creatures that aren’t D&D but more prehistorical.

My brother’s friend gave him books for D&D 5th. So I might he playing in a game soon. (Depending on real world of course).

[Duke Bushido]

3 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

I think a game set back when the Eldar Worms were on the Earth would be fun! I think it would be sword and sorcery but you could add fantastic creatures that aren’t D&D but more prehistorical.

 

I am reading that as Conan on Dune, and there is nothing there that I don't love!

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Cygnia]

1 minute ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

I am reading that as Conan on Dune, and there is nothing there that I don't love!

 

Thanks!

 

 

"By Crom, walk without rhythm!"

[Ninja-Bear]

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

I am reading that as Conan on Dune, and there is nothing there that I don't love!

 

Thanks!

 

 

Well not quite Dune. I couldn’t think at the time but the Supervillain The Slug. He’s from the ancient past and I think his race is referred as Eldar Worms. But definitely a Conan type jungle feel.

[Opal]

Conan the Fremen

 

It's Sword and Sorcery and Planet

[Duke Bushido]

How about a nice blend of Conan, Dune, and John Carter's Barsoom?

 

Just-  just _think_ of the lawsuits we could have with such a glorious setting!

 

 

[Steve]

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

How about a nice blend of Conan, Dune, and John Carter's Barsoom?

 

Just-  just _think_ of the lawsuits we couls have with such a glorious setting!

 

 

The John Carter and Tarzan books are in the public domain, but “John Carter” and “Tarzan” are both trademarked.

 

It does sound like it would be a battle royale of lawsuits.

[tkdguy]

Considering all the furor surrounding D&D and the new OGL, this is probably a good time for other game companies to plug their system. Are there any content creators who are interested in the HERO system? I haven't seen too many of them, but maybe a few would be willing to give the game a look.

[Spence]

On 8/21/2022 at 2:25 PM, fdw3773 said:

While updating various files in preparation for the upcoming Extra Life charity game event along with some conversations with people I know in the local rpg community, I realized that Hero System is no longer my "go-to" game of choice for superhero and fantasy as it was back when I was in high school and college. Since I now run sessions at local game events where players arrive and use a pregenerated character, player interest has leaned more towards rules light systems like ICONS that are easy to understand and pick up upon arrival. I haven't ran Fantasy AGE yet, but after some brief conversations with a few who are either new to RPGs or have played D&D, the impression I got from them was that Fantasy AGE was preferable over Fantasy Hero.

 

Does anyone else find themselves in the same situation? Or is Hero still your "go-to" rpg system? 🤔

 

I've come to realize that while I really miss a great game of Hero, GUMSHOE and Call of Cthulhu have become my go to games. 

 

And I am recently finding a lot of goodness in the 2d20 system. 

 

Hero is a great system, but it is very hard to get people to play it and it is simply not readily available at the FLGS. 

[Steve]

23 minutes ago, tkdguy said:

Considering all the furor surrounding D&D and the new OGL, this is probably a good time for other game companies to plug their system. Are there any content creators who are interested in the HERO system? I haven't seen too many of them, but maybe a few would be willing to give the game a look.

Unfortunately, Hero seems to be the game system that the RPG community has mostly forgotten about. Like “Hero’s still around? They did Champions, right?” While its peers like Chaosium and Steve Jackson Games will probably enjoy a surge as a result of Hasbro’s epic display of stupidity, I don’t think Hero Games will get to see much of that, sadly.

 

Joining the ORC community that is forming might help, as Hero is one of the elder statesmen of gaming. More people just need to be made aware it still exists.

[tkdguy]

We can also do our part in spreading the word. Maybe we can talk about it in Discord or run a sample game or two on Roll20.

[Ninja-Bear]

6 hours ago, Spence said:

 

I've come to realize that while I really miss a great game of Hero, GUMSHOE and Call of Cthulhu have become my go to games. 

 

And I am recently finding a lot of goodness in the 2d20 system. 

 

Hero is a great system, but it is very hard to get people to play it and it is simply not readily available at the FLGS. 

I’ve seen the 2D20 around. I think its for the newest Conan and John Carter. How are the mechanics?

[Old Man]

12 hours ago, tkdguy said:

We can also do our part in spreading the word. Maybe we can talk about it in Discord or run a sample game or two on Roll20.

 

I've been mentioning Hero where I can, but it's pissing into the wind--the vast majority of WotC refugees are going to PF2e due to ease of conversion, and to my knowledge there's no comprehensive D&D 5e --> Hero conversion document that I can point them to.

[Ninja-Bear]

2 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

I've been mentioning Hero where I can, but it's pissing into the wind--the vast majority of WotC refugees are going to PF2e due to ease of conversion, and to my knowledge there's no comprehensive D&D 5e --> Hero conversion document that I can point them to.

The closest conversion I can think of was in the back of Fantasy Hero 4th appendix. And that was for AD&D 2e, I think. 

[starblaze]

I want it to be my go to system and for a while it was, but I got tired of it after a while because I ended up doing all the work.  Nowadays I find myself preferring BASH because it's similar to Champions but a lot easie to play and run.

[Opal]

On 1/18/2023 at 10:14 AM, Old Man said:

D&D 5e --> Hero conversion document

Fighter: build your character on 100 pts + 5x level can't buy powers. SDP starts at 2 and becomes 4 at 5th level, 6 at 11th and 8 at 20th, but only for attacks, not movement.

 

Wizard: build your character on 100 points + 100x level. Only buy 1 charge powers but buy as many as you want.

[Old Man]

Been spending some time in D&D forums due to the OGL scandal, and that scandal has inspired a number of discussions about what people don't like about D&D.  The most (un)popular aspects seem to be:

 

- The power disparity between martials and casters

- The power disparity between subclasses--e.g. sorcerers and most rangers are underpowered while paladins and hexblade warlocks are OP, and so on

- Saving throws.  (Why this mechanic has persisted for almost fifty years is beyond me.)

- A very poorly defined skill system.

- Mundane combat is boring.

- "Vancian" magic.  It turns out almost no one likes the magic system(s) in D&D.  It's confusing for new players (spell level vs. character level), the memorization mechanic is likewise hard to understand, and it forces players to ignore 3/4 of the available spells which are too specialized or too underpowered.  Also, there is a large subset of players who want to play themed spellcasters, like ice mages, and of course this is impossible in D&D unless the DM lets them change the special effects on spells.

[Opal]

I mean, Hero has, maybe, one of those issues (skills are not well-defined, there are so many skills and so many open-ended ways to define more, you can never be sure you've got an area of expertise covered).

 

But, ironically, the edition before 5e also didn't have all those issues, either.  Martials & casters were balanced, non-AC defenses replaced saving throws, there was a short skill list with clear guidelines for setting difficulties and required successes, dynamic tactical combat, Vancian gone but for the fluff text of the wizard class, powers (including spells) were divided into attack and utility, so the firmer didnt crowd out yhe latter and niche out of combat spells became gp-equivalent-component limited Rituals. And, yeah, themed casters were workable. 

Sub-classes w/in a class, though, could have disparities. The Slayer did not compare with other Fighters, for instance.

 

Then 5e put it all back the way it was.

[Steve]

9 hours ago, Old Man said:

Been spending some time in D&D forums due to the OGL scandal, and that scandal has inspired a number of discussions about what people don't like about D&D.  The most (un)popular aspects seem to be:

 

- The power disparity between martials and casters

- The power disparity between subclasses--e.g. sorcerers and most rangers are underpowered while paladins and hexblade warlocks are OP, and so on

- Saving throws.  (Why this mechanic has persisted for almost fifty years is beyond me.)

- A very poorly defined skill system.

- Mundane combat is boring.

- "Vancian" magic.  It turns out almost no one likes the magic system(s) in D&D.  It's confusing for new players (spell level vs. character level), the memorization mechanic is likewise hard to understand, and it forces players to ignore 3/4 of the available spells which are too specialized or too underpowered.  Also, there is a large subset of players who want to play themed spellcasters, like ice mages, and of course this is impossible in D&D unless the DM lets them change the special effects on spells.

And yet I suspect the vast majority of them will continue using D&D rather than try another system (or maybe shift over to Pathfinder). Who knows? Maybe GURPS will experience a Renaissance or some new players will come here.

 

I'm now torn on whether I want to see the upcoming movie or wait for it to hit streaming. While I’d like to see more D&D movies, I don’t want to reward Hasbro and WOTC for their bad behavior.

[Opal]

7 hours ago, Steve said:

Maybe GURPS will experience a Renaissance

Gurps Old-school Renaisance.

 

GOR

 

I anticipate no issues.

[Scott Ruggels]

On 1/26/2023 at 9:36 PM, Old Man said:

Been spending some time in D&D forums due to the OGL scandal, and that scandal has inspired a number of discussions about what people don't like about D&D.  The most (un)popular aspects seem to be:

 

- The power disparity between martials and casters

- The power disparity between subclasses--e.g. sorcerers and most rangers are underpowered while paladins and hexblade warlocks are OP, and so on

- Saving throws.  (Why this mechanic has persisted for almost fifty years is beyond me.)

- A very poorly defined skill system.

- Mundane combat is boring.

- "Vancian" magic.  It turns out almost no one likes the magic system(s) in D&D.  It's confusing for new players (spell level vs. character level), the memorization mechanic is likewise hard to understand, and it forces players to ignore 3/4 of the available spells which are too specialized or too underpowered.  Also, there is a large subset of players who want to play themed spellcasters, like ice mages, and of course this is impossible in D&D unless the DM lets them change the special effects on spells.

 

This is fascinating.  Was never a fan of Vancian magic either.  There had got to be a simpler system that still emphasizes the limited resources of the lowest level mages, but without making them easily eaten pancakes for monsters.  Again, 20 year campaign of Fantasy Hero served me well on the magic front.

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, Scott Ruggels said:

 

This is fascinating.  Was never a fan of Vancian magic either.  There had got to be a simpler system that still emphasizes the limited resources of the lowest level mages, but without making them easily eaten pancakes for monsters.  Again, 20 year campaign of Fantasy Hero served me well on the magic front.

 

Some of the more enterprising players have implemented spell points systems. The most obvious is to just total up all the spell slots and use that for spell points. More complicated is to multiply that by some number and then recost each spell in terms of points, such that Magic Mouth and Goodberry might actually be worth casting. 
 

Ultimately what you get is slightly more versatile casters, which screws over the martials—but they were already screwed anyway so it doesn’t matter so much. 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

Some of the more enterprising players have implemented spell points systems. 

 

Yeah I made a really effective and interesting spell point system (mana) and even had structures to support it like magical items and locations in the game.  I tried it out a couple times, then Fantasy Hero came out and I abandoned D&D forever.