HERO System SRD

[Kenjitsu]

Will there ever be an SRD (System Requirement Documents that is freely shared) for the HERO System to make it easier to recruit new players? I am trying to build a HERO System community on RPGCrossing.com but it is hard because there is no SRD while the other popular systems all of an SRD. 

[megaplayboy]

On 11/2/2022 at 7:03 PM, Kenjitsu said:

Will there ever be an SRD (System Requirement Documents that is freely shared) for the HERO System to make it easier to recruit new players? I am trying to build a HERO System community on RPGCrossing.com but it is hard because there is no SRD while the other popular systems all of an SRD. 

Hero's not an OGL system at present, as far as I know.  The game pretty much IS its mechanics, with the campaign settings secondary.  The Hero System Basic Rules for 6th Edition is available as a PDF for 15 bucks.  The two Hero 6th books, Character Creation and Combat and Adventuring, are available in PDF form for 20 bucks each.  Hero System Basic Rules will do the job as far as a basic reference doc, I suspect.  But it isn't free.  

for 5th, the Hero System Sidekick PDF is 7 bucks.

Hero System Rules Book PDF for 4th edition is 10 bucks.  

 

Either the GM can come up with the money for 4-6 copies, or the players can pony up.  7 to 40 bucks is not that daunting.  

[Duke Bushido]

And the PDF of Champions 2e is only five bucks, and only 80 pages long (88, if you count the character sheets), and slightly less, since 5e and later do not use the Elemental Control rules (they were replaced by the "Unified" power modifier), so you skip those.

 

 

 

[pawsplay]

I doubt they could even do that if they wanted, without approval from the Champions Online people.

 

It would be nice to a see a small version of the basic rules, though, for free, like GURPS does.

[Chris Goodwin]

Champions Begins is a free starter product intended to teach GMs and players how to play Champions as they go through it.  Ennie award nominated even! 

[steriaca]

On 11/8/2022 at 1:28 PM, Chris Goodwin said:

Champions Begins is a free starter product intended to teach GMs and players how to play Champions as they go through it.  Ennie award nominated even! 

It teaches the rules, piecemeal by piecemeal. But after going through it and running it, your going to want a copy of Champions Complete. 

 

So Champions Begins may or may not exactly be what your talking about. 

[Lucas Yew]

I'd love to see some more goodwill copyleft, but it's understandably highly unlikely.

 

That's why I genuinely respect whoever actually got the whole SRD idea through the Wizard$ of the Co$t boards during the early years of D&D 3.0E, for succeeding in making a miracle...

 

P.S. BTW I do own the 6E core books + Champions Complete, in both dead tree and PDF formats.

[Grailknight]

There are some unique circumstances that made the D20 SRD's possible that aren't present in other games.  First the game became open source and second the business model of the companies involved. D20 revenue is based in modules where HERO is based on campaign settings. Sheer volume makes one feasible while the other has proved a challenge. Also the toolkit nature of HERO means giving away the game for free as an SRD would pretty much doom any chance at a module business. Hero's variability works against it in forming a consistent universal setting.

[unclevlad]

A few key elements are also missing from the 3E SRDs...I know those better.  Character creation and advancement are missing.  Also, the classes detailed are limited to those in the PHB.  3rd Ed revenue was also the class splatbooks...there were a LOT of those, and many sold fairly well.

 

I think a Hero SRD could be built, with slimmed-down rules.  The major aspect:  take out the massive proliferation of advantages and limitations, at least to a degree.  Or go for a Champions SRD...elements that were introduced for Fantasy or Ninja Hero...bye-bye.  Leave em for expansions, a la splatbooks.  

 

The problem is likely to be the raw financing to review, reclassify, re-edit, and reorganize the material, with an eye to hypertext as the primary implementation.  I think what may have helped the transition for D&D is that much of this effort may well have been taking place anyway, as 3E was built.