HERO system observations and beefs

[Gadodel]

Re: HERO system observations and beefs

 

1. This is meant as constructive criticism of a game system I really enjoy and have followed over the years.

 

2. The 5th Edition rulebooks has sort of a soulless feeling to it.

 

3. It also has an embarassingly-high amount of errata, and no, I dont plan on re-purchasing the same thing for another $45 bucks.

 

4. Fantasy Hero is indeterminate and fluffy--it could accompish its goal with 1/3 fewer pages and provide more details, examples, and concretes, like statted out equipment, characters, etc.

4 a. self-referential, and in retrospect, it was unnecessary, other than for trying to get you to buy all three (which I did, as a fan of the genre

 

5. I know, this is a pretty negative review for someone who is a fan. Just keep in mind, HERO games has my money, and I haven't asked for a refund. Im just hesitant to buy any additional source material--I'll generate my own--and stick with buying rules. Does anyone else share these criticisms? Or am I having a bad day?

 

1. I've only been a HEROphile for a year, so my response lacks your experience.

 

2. I bought HERO because it reminded me of my set of my drums. I can use HERO for anything. I can play anykind of music with my drums. It's hard to have a favorite whilst it easy to get bored playing the same music over and over. I can try new things, for sake of experimentation and learn new rules along the way. I'd say that it is quite soulful.

 

3. There are three types of errata:

~Poor grammar, poor spelling, missing words etc.

~Unclear explanation of something in the book. It can be as annoying as a contradiction in the rules or as broken as something godlike without a defense against it.

~Missing examples.

 

I'd say that the errata in HERO falls within the first category only. As near as I can tell. Many games have all three types of errata, so in comparison; HERO is doing a pretty good job. I might buy HERO 5ER...dunno for sure.

 

4 and 4a. They are optional. I might buy them simply because I am fan of what's been done so far and I wouldn't mind seeing more demonstrations of the core rules. Fantasy and Star HERO are at the top of my 'might get' list.

 

5. The seemingly negative view only solidified my high approval of HERO. HERO has glitches and imperfections, that's ok. I came from the D20 camp, where the glitches and imperfections are more numerous and profound. 3E D&D and D20 Modern are great products, but from there; the quality goes down hill. There is a lot of 'junk' out there for d20 fans to buy...IMHO.

[Bismark]

Re: HERO system observations and beefs

 

[Warning: quite lengthy]

 

Only one real complaint about the 5ER core book (and that is fairly trivial):

 

It's so big that it is very unwieldy to hold one-handed while rading it on the 'pan' (how very stereotypically male of me… )

 

No problem with the layout - it's clear, uncluttered, and if it reads like a textbook, that's just too bad; it's a RULEBOOK, not a novel [spot the giveaways here - I have an academic technical writing background and, yes, I'm an 'old git' (41 yrs young)].

 

As for the Genre books, they are WAY better than the previous edition versions (apart from CHAMPIONS, which I have no opinion on as I have not looked at it - not done Superheros since 2nd ed, which is what got me into HERO), and hold up well against the equivalent GURPS books (I used HERO for SF a long time ago, and used the GURPS Space/Ultra-Tech etc. line as my sourcebooks).

 

The World/support books are more of a mixed bag, as much due to my preferences as anything else -

 

Terran Empire strikes me as too 'Supers Sci-Fi' oriented (the aliens look like they would be perfectly at home in the Legion of Superheroes comics - too many humanoids with extra limbs/bumpy foreheads).

 

The Spacer's Toolkit is OK, but normally I do not 'design' stuff for Sci-Fi using the game system, but go about it the GURPS way [decide what the item does, in real life, thenwork out the game effects, and not worry too much about 'designing' it - this is a Heroic, not Superheroic setup]. Also, as anyone who saw my first ever post on the STAR HERO forum will know, I have always thought that firearms were massively underrated damage-wise in HERO [makes sense for Supers - a good brick SHOULD be able to bounce the shells from a Main Battle Tank off his chest - but for Heroic I prefer GURPS-level lethality and above all, so do my players, several of whom have migrated to HERO from GURPS becase of my treatment of weapoms and armour]

 

Turakian Age is great fun - as someone who started RPGing with Original D&D back in 1980, I think it's a decent enough setting with all the right cliches thrown in; though some of the Grimoire spells are a tad excessive (and the design of some of them is a little suspect - some Foci listed as OAF should really be OIF/IAF due to small size, some 'Difficult to Find' components really aren't - but that's another story. Just bear in mind that warriors built for this setting are going to have a VERY hard time against mages if they are not built very carefully (it is easy to get amounts of armour/magic which even a 2-handed can-opener used by a STR 23 uber-warrior will be lucky to get BODY through even with a head/vitals hit).

 

Bestiary is fine, as is MMM - they do what they are supposed to.

 

Valdorian Age is a real mixed bag - while TA competes pretty well with other generic sourcebooks, VA is very much a glorified city guide with some nice touches elsewhere. Probably a matter of taste - reminds me more of Nehwon than Hyboria completeness-wise, and having been spoilt by TA, I was expecting a bit more detail. Nice Sorcery rules, though, and I nearly even managed to overcome my distaste for the Normal Skill Maxima etc. (low-level characters tend to put me off somewhat). BTW, the Rapid Archery Talent , listed as a Fighting Trick, should actually be a Martial Art (it's a staple of Medieval Muslim 'Ghulam'/'Mamluk' archery manuals, often practised from the back of stationery horse; see the Battle of Gaza in the Crusades to check out its effect when done 'en masse' by properly-trained troops).

 

As for the artwork in HERO stuff - it ranges from pretty basic to pretty darned good. There is a little too much art 'recycling', but HERO are far from being the only perpetrators of this…

 

So overall, core book=good; genre books (the ones I have read)=good; setting books=good to fair (but the rating for each book is VERY open to personal taste)