Anatosuchus Posted October 20, 2005 Report Share Posted October 20, 2005 Hi Chaps, I'm currently trying to get my head around Hero 5th (hard!), and if I manage it I'm likely to want to buy some supplements. This leads to a couple of questions: (a) I have a 1990 vintage first printing Ninja Hero. Can anyone tell me how different the current edition is? ( What is the difference in content between Ninja Hero and The Ultimate Martial Artist? TIA! Matt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted October 21, 2005 Report Share Posted October 21, 2005 Re: Ninja / Martial arts questions (a) I have a 1990 vintage first printing Ninja Hero. Can anyone tell me how different the current edition is? This is only my personal opinion, and others may differ. The current edition focuses on martial arts that involves more options for high-powered anime and video fighting game style adventuring and abilities as seen in movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as well as more down to earth martial arts action. The campaigning section is larger, with several example campaigns and a lot of example characters for the different power levels. The old Ninja Hero devoted pages to martial arts styles that this version did not need. ( What is the difference in content between Ninja Hero and The Ultimate Martial Artist? The new Ninja Hero is more about campaigning and telling martial artist stories, and how to replicate martial arts stunts and abilities that UMA didn't cover, such as anime abilities like you see in Dragonball and Ranma. I own both editions myself, and I really like the new version of it. I would suggest getting both UMA and Ninja Hero to fully cover your needs in the Hero System when it comes to martial arts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 21, 2005 Report Share Posted October 21, 2005 Re: Ninja / Martial arts questions The first edition of Ninja HERO has two main focuses. The first is statting out various martial arts and arts related weapons and gear, giving options for customization, and showing you how to use the Powers system to create many classic MA abilities from folklore and fiction. The other focus is providing MA campaign guidelines and background information, and settings and characters to use in those campaigns. For Fifth Edition HERO, those two focusses have essentially been divided into separate books: 5E Ultimate Martial Artist has most of the nuts-and-bolts of art design, while 5E Ninja HERO has most of the campaign advice, source material and sample characters. There is a certain amount of duplication of material found in the original Ninja HERO, but the 5E books have greatly expanded on it. Because of the difference in what they cover, the two books actually compliment each other very well IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anatosuchus Posted October 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2005 Re: Ninja / Martial arts questions Excellent. Thanks chaps - looks like I'll have to have myself a little core rules playtest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted October 21, 2005 Report Share Posted October 21, 2005 Re: Ninja / Martial arts questions Once you wrap your brain around how HERO works, martial arts combat in this game is the best in the entire RPG industry. Trust me, everything you see characters doing in Wuxia and Anime you can easily do in HERO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tancred Posted October 24, 2005 Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 Re: Ninja / Martial arts questions I also own the original Ninja Hero, but not the current edition. I haven't bought the new one simply because we aren't running a game where it would be as useful. I did, however, buy UMA right after it appeared, and it's still my most-used Hero book (even more than the 5th Edition rule book). UMA is extremely useful for any genre you might want to run. It's seeing a lot of use in my current Post-Apocalyptic HERO game, and it will continue to get used when we switch over to Fantasy (the other GM in our group) in a few months. If you have to choose, absolutely pick up UMA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted October 25, 2005 Report Share Posted October 25, 2005 Re: Ninja / Martial arts questions I'll pipe up for this as well, though the opinions already given are well thought and accurate. My own take on this is that if you intend to run any non-supers campaigns at all, UMA is extremely valuable. It gives you everything you need to keep fighting between 'normals' from becomming too much like Pong: everyone can develope a unique style, a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, etc. A very handy thing to have around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted October 25, 2005 Report Share Posted October 25, 2005 Re: Ninja / Martial arts questions and it makes "Martial Arts using Vigilante" of the week a lot less vanilla. I love UMA. Ninja Hero is a genre book, discusses how to run Martial Arts oriented campaigns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted October 26, 2005 Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 Re: Ninja / Martial arts questions Buy NINJA HERO 5th Ed. 'cause it has an NPC by the name of "Pretty Soldier Waitress X" in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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