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Hero Needs Reviewers!!

Darren Watts

By Darren Watts
in HERO System Discussion

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Sketchpad Grand Master

Sketchpad

Posted
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Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

 

Chalk another review up ... I think I'm going to try and do a review every other day ... at least till I run out of things to review ;) What about things like Hero Designer and Digital Hero? Would you like reviews of them as well?

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Toadmaster Experienced

Toadmaster

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Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

 

Any particular books you want to see reviewed?

 

rgds

Torch

 

As a HERO customer I'd like to see reviews of StarHERO and Dark Champions, it would be nice to generate some interest in StarHERO so we could get it back on track (more books) and to get the word out on DC and hopefully get some of the related supplements onto the to do list.

 

I may try my hand at reviewing but I think I'm too illiterate to write a decent review, most likely it would come out something like BUY THIS BOOK, BECAUSE I SAID SO although probably not in so many words :)

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arcady Proficient

arcady

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Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

 

As a HERO customer I'd like to see reviews of StarHERO and Dark Champions' date=' it would be nice to generate some interest in StarHERO so we could get it back on track (more books) and to get the word out on DC and hopefully get some of the related supplements onto the to do list.[/quote']Maybe I'll sit down with my new copy of Star Hero over the weekend...
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Killer Shrike Grand Master

Killer Shrike

Posted
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Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

 

Fantasy Hero is to a nueroticly unhappy robot with a suicide complex. My copy complains incessantly and has tried to jump to its death at least thrice.

Some of my friends have said the same exact thing about their copies, but my copy at least is most definitely not a robot, or nuerotic, nor suicidal.

 

Very strange really.....

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Killer Shrike Grand Master

Killer Shrike

Posted
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Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

 

I meant UPS a review copy of Dark Champions addy

heh...people have real addresses?

 

You should have it on file; you've sent me a contract and check before, and of course goodies from the online store...it would be under "Ed Hastings".

 

Ill send it to you in a PM as well :D

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HeroTina Collaborator

HeroTina

Posted
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Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

 

heh...people have real addresses?

 

You should have it on file; you've sent me a contract and check before, and of course goodies from the online store...it would be under "Ed Hastings".

 

Ill send it to you in a PM as well :D

I didn't know your real name silly :) I have it all now though. Thanks

 

T.

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Killer Shrike Grand Master

Killer Shrike

Posted
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Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

 

I submitted Champions Universe, Sidekick, and Champions Battlegrounds to EN World so that they can be reviewed. Hopefully they will be approved soon.

 

 

Other folks could help out, transferring the info on the books from the online store over to the add product form on EN World.

 

http://www.enworld.org/reviews/index.php?sub=yes&where=publist&which=Hero+Games

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Killer Shrike Grand Master

Killer Shrike

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Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

 

Posted review of FREd on amazon.com

 

It will take a while to post, but here is the text of it in the meantime:

The HERO System Fifth Rules Edition (FREd for short) is the definitive edition of a game system with more than 20 years of history behind it.

 

(Some might know the HERO System as "Champions, the Superheroic Roleplaying Game!")

 

The HERO System is the king of point based Game Systems. Instead of a class + level structure like D&D and it's many imitators, in the HERO System a player has a certain number of points (varying by genre and power level) with which to buy characteristics, skills, special abilities, and so forth.

 

It's purpose is to allow a GM to run any genre, any point level, any time period with one set of consistent rules. It's very doable to take a normal fellah from a modern world campaign into a supers or space empire game and vice versa without missing a beat if you wanted to, but more importantly once the GM and players have learned the rules system, then rather than having to learn an entirely different rules system to play some other game, they can just adapt the good bits of the other game and run it in the HERO System instead.

 

It's point based open framework set up allows this to work. The key to any point based system is balancing abilities costs against their benefits so that one character's x points of y is equivalent in usefulness to another character's x points of z, and the HERO System does an excellent job of this essential internal balancing.

 

The strength of a point based system is greater flexibility in design; the weakness is that lacking GM oversight unscrupulous and ignorant players alike can come up with some pretty abusive characters. Thus the game takes a little bit of GM monitoring of character desing to work correctly.

 

Where the HERO System really excels however is that instead of having a lot of prepackaged abilities on a set list, it instead has a mechanic based upon the idea of reasoning from effects and then using a collection of base game mechanics modified to express that concept in game terms.

 

Thus rather than having umpteen abilities that all do the same general sort of damage the HERO System instead types damage into the broad groups of Energy, Physical, Mental, Flash, and Power damage, (Physical and Energy is also broken down further into "Normal" damage and "Killing" damage), and then provides a single base mechanic for each which is purchased in die amounts, and modified by various advantages and limitations to behave in ways appropriate to a desired effect.

 

So as an example a crusty mercenary in a gritty space campaign might have several types of guns, a wizard in a fantasy campaign might have several offensive spells, and a fire projector in a superhero game might have super powers all based on the same base power, "Ranged Killing Attack", just modified appropriately to model their respective game effects.

 

To continue the example the guns of the merc might have a variety of advantages like "Autofire", "Armor Piercing", and "Explosion" as good things, and limitations like "Charges", and "Obvious Accessible Focus: Gun" as downsides. The Wizard might have several attack spells with advantages similar to the merc and limitations like "Incantations", "Gestures", and "Extra Time". The Fire Blaster super might have advantages like "0 END", "Continuous", "Uncontrolled", and "Sticky" to indicate that they light things on fire, they continue to burn after the attack lands, and can light anything that touches them on fire too; it might take limitations like "Restrainable: Hands" and "Not In Space or Underwater" to indicate that if their hands are retrained or they are in a non flammable environment they cant use their power.

 

 

As you can see this kind of set up is extremely flexible and "inclusive", allowing the modeling of a lot of effects with the same basic mechanics. It can also get very wordy and complicated, and an oft cited complaint by detractors of the system is that the character generation is complex, and involves some basic math.

 

 

While it can take a bit of time to make an HERO System character, depending on how many points are available to a character and how outre a character concept is, but on the plus side once the initial build of the character is done, the character grows slowly over time rather than in repetitive stair stepped plateaus like happens in a class + level game.

 

 

The combat system itself is Turn based and breaks everything into 12 second Turns. Each second in a Turn is called a Segment. Every character has a Speed attribute measured from 1 to 12 which indicates how many segments they get actions each 12 seconds, broken down evenly across the Turn. Thus a character with a SPD 4 goes on the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th segments of each Turn. When a character takes an action it is called a Phase, and actions can take anything from a "0 Phase", "1/2 Phase", "Full Phase", or more. Most combat actions take a 1/2 Phase by default.

 

Characters can hold a 1/2 or Full Phase and act later than their initiative, and characters can "Abort" to defensive actions like blocking or dodging or jumping out of the way even if it's not their initiative. Attacking ends a character's Phase.

 

Because character's can react to opponents out of initiative order, HERO System combats involve a lot of give and take and have a lot of tactical flexibility.

 

In addition to using weapons and unusual powers where appropriate to the genre being modeled, there are numerous basic manuevers that any character can use at no cost in character points, and there are better manuevers that can be bought. There are also rules for knockback, and very specific rules for interacting with the environment so things like hurling opponents into walls or hitting them with telephone poles or ramming them with a vehicle are all common occurances in various genres.

 

 

Due to the almost limitless variety of effects possible, HERO System combats can be very wild and yet they are also meticulously tracked to the second. On the plus side the action is very clearly defined, cinematic, and makes for great RPG-tales later. On the downside combat can take a while if a GM doesnt take steps to streamline where appropriate.

 

 

 

From a gaming perspective, the HERO System is for those GM's that know what they want and arent afraid of a little extra work to get exactly that, rather than settling for whatever design decisions the developers of other games wrote into their systems. The ability to create precisely what you want in your settings and characters is also an enabler for roleplaying as it allows richly realized character concepts.

 

The HERO System allows for fun, unique games that are highly memorable even years later. It empowers GM's and Players alike to make the worlds and characters that they want to make rather than having to work with whatever X game company decided to provide in their supplements.

 

 

 

Ive been playing with the system for 14 years now, across a variety of genre and have never had cause to regret it. Two thumbs way way up.

 

5/5 stars

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Sidhain Newbie

Sidhain

Posted
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Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

 

As I've been painted "anti-Hero" by some, I wish to express encouragement to do so--but with a caveat.

 

1) Gushing Reviews read like ad-copies. For a good review style read any Dan Davenport at RPGnet review --fair, but still focusing on the positives (when possible).

 

2) Defend inaccuracies or errors in someones criticism, but do not defend opinions--bless you but your not going to do anything positive for Hero that way.

 

 

3) Understand that liking Hero is not a bad or good thing--do not be cause for your forandom to be painted with a broad /negative/ brush.

 

 

4) Have fun a review that is work, is not one anyone wants to read.

 

 

 

For someone who is not a "fan" of Hero it amazes me how much of my efforts, thoughs and even webpage musing bits are on this forum *L* I did a silly vanity search one day and found quite a bit--which is funny since I "hate" Hero (not really, its a love/hate thing--brilliant design, but, not my thing.)

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Eosin Veteran

Eosin

Posted
Posted

Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

 

As I've been painted "anti-Hero" by some, I wish to express encouragement to do so--but with a caveat.

 

1) Gushing Reviews read like ad-copies. For a good review style read any Dan Davenport at RPGnet review --fair, but still focusing on the positives (when possible).

 

2) Defend inaccuracies or errors in someones criticism, but do not defend opinions--bless you but your not going to do anything positive for Hero that way.

 

 

3) Understand that liking Hero is not a bad or good thing--do not be cause for your forandom to be painted with a broad /negative/ brush.

 

 

4) Have fun a review that is work, is not one anyone wants to read.

 

 

 

For someone who is not a "fan" of Hero it amazes me how much of my efforts, thoughs and even webpage musing bits are on this forum *L* I did a silly vanity search one day and found quite a bit--which is funny since I "hate" Hero (not really, its a love/hate thing--brilliant design, but, not my thing.)

 

Good morning,

 

Are you awake? Points 1 & 4 are coherent (undirected but still coherent even if I am unaware to whom you are speaking) however, the rest of your post eludes my understanding. Is this an inside joke that I am unaware of?

 

Finally, what is a "not a fan" doing hanging out on the fanboy message boards? That is like going to a movies that you dislike or eating at a resturant that serves food you dislike.....you can do it, but why?

 

Randy - my tired brain may be the the cause of failure to understand any point contained in the above post.

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