Dust Raven Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 I've recently gotten my hands on a copy of this book. Actually, a friend has offered to sell me her copy. I have't had a chance to read it through or even use it at all, so I'm hoping to fish for a few opinions from anyone who's read it. For anyone who hasn't, it looks to be a book without genre/system that includes a bunch of character development/background tables for fleshing out flat characters. So... has anybody read this? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckB Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend I have all three books for fantasy,sci-fi and modern-day rpgs. They're interesting, but maybe best used for npcs and for players who don't really have a solid-character idea. Some players like the books because of the randomness of character design, others like them because there is a potential for "Monty Haul" type characters becoming developed from them. Also, you can wind up with characters like fighters who've lost both arms, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhamin Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend I also have all three. They are fun, but probably better used as a source of inspiration that an actual "roll it and go" history builder. Lots of the mundane stuff is pretty good, but in my opinion they make a characters life much too complicated. Whenever I used it I usually liked the inspiration material on one or two aspects of their past but then had to cut out half the rest of the stuff to make it intelligible. Otherwise you have beginning characters who have survived multiple military tours of duty, alien abduction, a prision sentance, and have a mysterious box they aren't supposed to open for another year. It gets to be a bit much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend I have all three. You generally wind up with one of two things: A really bland character that has the same background three times, so you wind up making up the back story almost completely by yourself in order to compensate; or a character so replete and overdone with back story that you need a reem of paper to finish writing it up. I think it's a fun book if you just stick to rolling one or two things from each area. When you try to follow the linear progression, you're bound to wind up with some whacky and sometimes entertaining but ultimately inappropriate stuff. It's the ultimate in making contrived characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend They're fun little books. I forget before which book the author had found religion. Third one I think. The random tables are interesting and can give you something to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Desmarais Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend I've recently gotten my hands on a copy of this book. Actually, a friend has offered to sell me her copy. I have't had a chance to read it through or even use it at all, so I'm hoping to fish for a few opinions from anyone who's read it. For anyone who hasn't, it looks to be a book without genre/system that includes a bunch of character development/background tables for fleshing out flat characters. So... has anybody read this? Thanks! Central Casting (all three books) are cute and can actually be helpful for players that have problems fleshing out background - so long as don't take it's results to literally. I have found that they are at their most useful with games that use a point-based character creation system as you can then just have the players pay points for every wierd little thing that book assign to the character. (Used as an add-on to a random character creation game can lead to some really unbalanced results if the GM actualy lets the cahracters have what the book gives them). John D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckB Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend The Central Casting books are like alcohol; enjoyable at the time, but a bit of a headache later. What's interesting, is that the books make the character creation process fun, when normally,that's not the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Confoundo Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend They're fun little books. I forget before which book the author had found religion. Third one I think. To elaborate on this, with random rolls your character could find himself inflicted with Mental Illnesses like psychopathic disorder, multiple personality syndrome, and homosexuality. (IIRC, there's also an author's note detailing how his religious beliefs on homosexuality influenced the charts). I found this part offensive, but the rest of the book was pretty entertaining, so I can overlook it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magmarock Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend Originally there were three books, CC: Heroes of Today, CC: Heroes of Tomorrow, and CC: Heroes of Fantasy (I think it was that, can't recall at the moment) and then Central Casting pulled these three, fine books into one that covered all aspects, CC: Heroes of Legend. I owned all four books at one time or other, gave the three older ones to my brother when I bought the compilation. It was my favorite sourcebook and a very useful tool for creating NPCsl. Alas, it was stolen from me and I sure wish I could find another! Since it is out of print, it will be sheer luck to get another copy. My advice to you, Dust Raven, is don't let go of this prize! Do not loan it to anyone you don't trust. This book has been ever so helpful to me, as GM and Player, to make hundreds of characters in many, many different games, and it is a great springboard for unique characters both backgrounds and personalities! Cheers! Mags -turning green with envy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted May 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend Thumbing through it, it seems that it's Fantasy genre only. Which isn't a problem, I just gotta ignore all the non-human results and most anything less than Civilized culture and everything else has a Modernday counterpart. I'm not sure about it though. It seems really clunky, but also kinda fun. It reminds me a bit of the character background in Cyberpunk 2020, only taken to extremes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magmarock Posted May 1, 2004 Report Share Posted May 1, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend Is the cover blue, or brown? I ask because, the blue cover is the fantasy one, and also the first one published. The brown cover is the compilation of all three books. The present and future books' tables (technology and all) are toward the back of the book or set in as special tables throughout. I guess the writers' discovered that a lot of the tables were pretty much the same and that with careful additions of the special tables, the book could be, er, compiled. Heh. Ok. It's late. Time for me to get some sleep. Mags Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted May 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend Cover has a blue boarder, © 1988 and the ISBN ends in 00-1. My guess it's the original . As priceless as this antique is ( ), I think I'd rather have the three book compilation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakboy6117 Posted May 1, 2004 Report Share Posted May 1, 2004 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend the fighter with no arms would have to be THE MASTER OF UNARMED COMBAT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted August 24, 2006 Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend I apologize deeply for the threadomancy but I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find a copy of the Heroes of Legend. I've managed to find a good copies of Heroes Now! and Heroes fo the Future, for a very good price, but the fantasy version is near impossible to find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkwleisemann Posted August 24, 2006 Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend Heck, I've tripped across HoLegend fairly often at Half Price Books around here. Occasionally on eBay. And I have to agree. They're good books, up to the point where you start looking at (1) what types of characters you can actually end up with or (2) the political and religious influence that creeps into it heavier and heavier, particularly in Heroes Now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted August 24, 2006 Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend Yeah, that's unfortunate, but I would hack them apart and add my own influence anyway. Not to mention the geek cred for having them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBikle Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend This is the modern-day genre edition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBikle Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend The sci-fi edition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edsel Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend I have all three books as well. Actually all four since Heroes of Legend went through two editions. I pretty much agree with the general sentiment that I have seen here. They are fun but I wouldn't totally base a character on what you roll up. They can be pretty useful for generating interesting NPCs though. We used to have a blast just rolling up characters on their tables for fun. You can come up with some pretty odd ball stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBikle Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend They were pretty good. When I used them in my games, I basically treated them as a 25 pt. perk (50 pts. for superheroes) that basically covered all the additional good and bad things gained. The choice of having a character go through Central Casting was always optional and I would usually discourage players from going through it if they had a reasonably complete character idea thought out. I've always thought that the Central Casting books would really work as a software game aid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robyn Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 Re: Central Casting: Heroes of Legend I've managed to find a good copies of Heroes Now! Oh. Disregard my post in the other thread, then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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