Questions About Star Hero

[cmagoun]

After a long break from the Hero System, I picked up the black monolith which is the Revised 5th Edition. I anticipate running a science-fiction campaign in the coming months and I have almost settled on Hero for the system, as opposed to picking up Traveller d20, or writing my own game. Now, I am deciding whether to pick up Star Hero and I have a few questions for those with more knowledge and experience:

 

1. I own tons of gaming material, including most every Traveller book in existance. I have gamed for years. I don't need gobs of general "these are all of the genres in science fiction" advice, nor do I need an overview of potential jump technologies, or another star system generation chart. Does Star Hero bring anything else to the table to make it a must-buy? What extra bit of rules, or cool subsystem does it give you that makes it necessary have to run a sci-fi game?

 

2. I would like to run a sci-fi game in which the PCs' ship and the operation of that ship plays an important part. I think the Hero vehicle system is a little to abstract for this type of treatment. Does Star Hero include, or has someone worked up a system for, determining the mass/volume/cost for a starship device and how much a starship can hold? I am working on such a system now, but I would love to see someone else's take on this.

 

Thanks for everything,

Chris Magoun

Runebearer RPG -- http://www.runebearer.com

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

I'm going to take your word that you don't need help for the specific areas you mention (which SH does cover in detail). So, other notable things in the book that you might find useful include:

 

Detailed guidelines for developing every possible stripe of alien, including true exotics such as crystaline or energy beings;

 

Equally detailed guidelines for developing futuristic and alien societies: culture, politics, economy, etc.

 

Scads of prebuilt Package Deals for numerous races and professions appropriate to the genre;

 

Lots of prebuilt weapons and other tech for all levels from near-future to near-magical (and even a suggested price list);

 

Much real-world hard science info about astronomy and astrophysics, our galaxy, and particularly our solar system;

 

Optional realistic zero-g movement and detailed starship combat rules;

 

Realistic and game-mechanic effects of various environments, such as high and low gravity, vacuum and radiation;

 

Sample writeups for starships, ground vehicles, and mecha (not many, but useful).

 

Now, in regards to your second question: Star HERO doesn't go into a lot of detail on the volume of various component systems. The Ultimate Vehicle has more, but it's still not anywhere close to the volume of stuff for a game like Traveller. Steve Long has made it clear that Hero Games won't be dealing with this issue in any more detail in an "official" capacity.

 

There have been some significant fan efforts along those lines, though, collating the published info and extrapolating from it. You can read this info on this thread from the Star HERO discussion forum; and the subject was pursued somewhat further on this forum from the Star Hero Fandom.com website.

 

BTW I heartily recommend Star Hero Fandom.com - it has tons of resources, including detailed conversions from other sci-fi game systems, and links to related websites.

 

I hope that helps.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

Well, Star Hero does have all that stuff you mentioned...genres, jump drives, star system generation...but it also has some other good stuff too.

 

Package deals, for one. These are all generic packages, without any real connection to any specific setting. They have options, too, to help customize the generic package. For instance, the reptiloid alien package has options like Venomous Bite, Claws, Supreme Climbing, and Tail, whereas the Herdfolk alien package has Horns and Kick as options. Thirteen species packages, four cultural packages, six environmental packages (not counting the various packages for size difference), and 17 professional packages in all. Should be something there you could use for your game.

 

The generation systems included seem more in depth than others I've seen in many ways, and yet less so in others. The detail is more oriented to game-play, and less toward working out details that players mostly don't care about, like the relative distribution of elements on a planet. There's a pretty good treatment of alien cultures and non-carbon-based lifeforms, which Traveller tends to overlook, since it has detailed the aliens available with no random generation necessary.

 

There's a good deal of equipment covering various genres (cyberpunk and time travel really stand out from the more basic space opera and hard scifi offerings). There's also good coverage of environmental effects you would expect to find in a scifi setting...vacuum, radiation, the icy blackness of space. Pretty good chapter on psionics, including some psi related tech, and how non-psionics might react to psis in a given campaign.

 

It doesn't cover the nuts and bolts of ship maintenance, however, as that in and of itself would cover too much ground for a setting-non-specific book like this. Unfortunately, the setting books published also don't contain this type of information. My best advice in this area is to use ship-building rules from Traveller or some other game system, then convert the results to Hero (assuming you decide to stick with Hero for the other rules). Or, you could come up with a standard equipment list (like MitchellS has in another thread) showing the possible types of equipment along with size and cost, and then have the players design their ship from that.

 

If you're able to get your hands on a copy, obviously flipping through it is the best way to decide if it's what you need. If not, it might be a good idea to describe the setting you're planning on using, along with details you have worked out and those you're stuck on. Someone here should be able to let you know if Star Hero covers your weak spots without altering your strong points too seriously.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

if you want some good examples to start from or work with, the Star Hero fandom site has a lot of traveller conversion stuff already done...

 

I too have most everything for traveller, along with doing some playtesting for Imperium Games, and a couple of Pyramid Online articles on aspects of GURPS Traveller, and if theres something specific you need a conversion of just ask

 

one point of note when converting ship deckplans from traveller to Hero, 1 traveller square/GT hex is equal to 2 Hero hexes

[austenandrews]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

I hadn't heard of that Star Hero site before. As I'm working up a new SH campaign right now, I may have to visit it regularly. Thanks.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

as to the volume/mass etc of various components issue, I'd suggest just converting from the traveller figures, since were not going to see anything official unfortunately

 

closest thing to official would be going back to the original vehicle rules from Champions 2 which did cover this... and I could post what information I have from those if Steve and co dont object to this.

 

I have never agreed with the idea of not having some kind of rules for this, otherwise you can easily end up with something the size of an X-Wing that can kill the Death Star in standard combat[i dont count the killing of the original death star, that was very special circumstances]

 

I know my opinions are probably based in some of the concepts of the traveller/space opera era... but I prefer having something more concrete to

work with

[cmagoun]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

Thanks for the links and suggestions. I am currently working on a custom system to build and purchase starship hulls and components as well as a modified combat system. I am hoping to have a rough draft soon.

 

Thanks Again,

Chris Magoun

Runebearer RPG -- http://www.runebearer.com

[Eodin]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

Star Hero has a section with conversions for Babylon 5, Highlander, RoboTech, Shadowrun, StarGate, Star Trek, and Traveller, posted by various HERO Games fans. If you're into Sci-Fi, definitely some good stuff to check out.

 

Star Hero is hosted by Aroooo, who did the Babylon 5 conversion, and was created with Steve's blessing.

[Steve Long]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

Just to be clear, I believe Eodin's referring to the Star Hero Fandom website. SH itself does not have any conversions to other game systems, nor any setting-specific material for published/broadcast SF settings.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

I have never agreed with the idea of not having some kind of rules for this, otherwise you can easily end up with something the size of an X-Wing that can kill the Death Star in standard combat

 

What if that's what you're looking for in your game? It seems kind of silly to allow this, but Hero is all about wide open options rather than adhering to reality (or one person's view of it rather). The fact that there are no setting specific rules for Alien Wars or Terran Empire is kind of a bummer, but there's nothing stopping anyone from deriving some general rules and applying them in their own game.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

yep, and thats what this board is for, and star hero fandom... among others, I guess I am a bit hardheaded on things... its more a matter of suspension of disbelief and its varying degrees.... to each his own

 

I have a couple more projects I should be starting soon that I will post the results of once there ready for folks to look at

[John Desmarais]

Re: Questions About Star Hero

 

as to the volume/mass etc of various components issue, I'd suggest just converting from the traveller figures, since were not going to see anything official unfortunately closest thing to official would be going back to the original vehicle rules from Champions 2 which did cover this... and I could post what information I have from those if Steve and co dont object to this.

 

I have never agreed with the idea of not having some kind of rules for this, otherwise you can easily end up with something the size of an X-Wing that can kill the Death Star in standard combat[i dont count the killing of the original death star, that was very special circumstances]

 

I know my opinions are probably based in some of the concepts of the traveller/space opera era... but I prefer having something more concrete to

work with

 

This type of rule would be part of the campaign rules, not part of the system rules, in a game like the Hero System. So, it wouldn't belong in "Star Hero" (except perhaps as a suggestion) but you might find rules similar to this in something like "Terran Federation" or some other Star Hero Campaign guidebook. After all, rules tying volume/mass/power together make sense in a Traveller-like campaign, but wouldn't necessarily belong in more science-light campaign.