Star Hero:?

[Bygoneyrs]

Why have the guys at Hero not added more resource materials for

Star Hero?

 

Penn

[Starwolf]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Why have the guys at Hero not added more resource materials for

Star Hero?

 

Penn

 

Short answer... slow sales of existing Star Hero products.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Star Hero ends up getting about one new product a year, which is more than is planned for either Ninja Hero or Pulp Hero. To help tide folks over I've been writing bunches of articles and other stuff for Digital Hero, all set in the Terran Empire universe. (If there was more SH stuff coming out I'd probably be writing a load of Champions stuff; space opera runs only a close second to superheroes as my favorite adventure genre.)

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Well maybe if they put out more stuff more people would buy it? When was the last time a

new product came out for SH anyway?

 

Penn

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

That would be last year's Worlds Of Empire.

 

Next on the schedule is next year's Scourges of the Galaxy.

 

As for more people buying it if more stuff is out, reports from the DOJ guys is that the genre book has sold OK, it's just the support stuff that isn't doing so hot. There's some truth to what you say, in that a fully-supported setting (with a setting book, an equipment/powers book, and an enemies book) is easier to sell than one that's just a sketch, but it's an investment that the DOJ guys can't quite afford to that level when there are more profitable books to be made.

 

(Sad but true... I would have liked to have seen two SH books a year, for my own tastes, with one expanding the TE setting and one doing something else, but the realities of marketing dictated otherwise.)

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Well the more material that is created for SH the bigger the profit

share will be for it, and the stronger the demand will become. With

the creation of TH I am hoping both settings will feed off each other.

 

Penn

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

hopefully the Traveller Hero core books and follow on materials will stir up more interest in Star Hero in general, I would like to see more Terran Empire and or other Star Hero material in general come out.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Well the more material that is created for SH the bigger the profit

share will be for it, and the stronger the demand will become. With

the creation of TH I am hoping both settings will feed off each other.

 

Penn

 

What you propose sounds logical, but even if the reality of the market place bore that out, the initial investment to create that volume of material would have to be accounted for. Darren Watts and Steve Long are the folks with access to the numbers for cost and for previous sales, and they're the ones who have to decide if the likely return would compensate for what they have to put in.

 

To be fair, Terran Empire is already supported by a general setting book, a planets book, and a tech/starship book, while Alien Wars has a setting book and a licensed adventure. From all reports none of these have ever exactly flown off the shelves, and lag far behind the supers and fantasy stuff. I've heard other game creators remark that sci-fi genre game sales are currently in a slump industry-wide compared to some other genres.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Worlds Of Empire was released in early 2006, in some chats with Darren several months after its release he stated it wasn't selling very well at all. Though not nearly as badly as the Pulp Hero line is. In fact Star and Fantasy are the only two genres outside Champions that see releases. Dark Champions and Pulp are both essentially dead for now. Ninja and Post-Apocalyptic are stated one off genre books so they really don't count since no more was ever planned for them. Only the Champions and Ultimate line have consistent releases.

 

The idea that simply printing more books will created a larger resource of books for people to buy that will cause more sales is a nice equation on paper. But if the producer of the resource books isn't making any returns back on any one product flooding the market with more products can look like suicide. While I'm not privy to the exact dollar amounts I'm going to guess that profit margins in the gaming industry are little better than razor thin. They don't have the luxury of simply printing large number of source books that barely sell well.

 

The bottom line really is if you want more of something buy it, and get your friends to buy it, and their friends, and the company will notice that the thing in question is selling well and make more of them.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Well I have done my part lately, for my son I have bought almost

everything out there Hero for v5 for Champions, Dark Champions,

Fantasy , and Star Hero. Now I am awaiting a copy of Ninja , and

PAH as well as the new The Ultimate Energy Projector enroute via

UPS mail to me now. Also I just purchased both HT books from

ComStar games today online and they will also be sent to me via

mail in a few days now. I am doing my part to buy it all!

 

I am not too sure about that Pulp Hero stuff though, Isn't that

WWII era stuff? I would like to buy another copy of Fantasy Hero

and I guess from what I have read I should go after a HC version.

 

Penn

[John Desmarais]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Well the more material that is created for SH the bigger the profit

share will be for it, and the stronger the demand will become. With

the creation of TH I am hoping both settings will feed off each other.

 

Penn

 

 

It's a nice idea, in theory, but not one that the market really supports. Science Fiction games are a hard sell. Actually, anything outside of D&Dish Fantasy is hard to sell (Vampire having been a noteworthy exception, due in no small part to being in the right place at the right time).

 

The Superhero genre (Champions) does the best for Hero Games, which is understandable as it's very much the "core" genre for the system (and customer base) - and, as such, has become the best supported genre.

 

Traveler is one of the few SF games to attract a substantial following, and I'm really hoping that TH does well as it could turn some of that Trav fan-base in Hero players and increase the desire for more SF Hero stuff (but my fear is that the audience for TH is going to be limited primarily to the intersection of the existing Hero and Trav audience).

[John Desmarais]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

I am not too sure about that Pulp Hero stuff though, Isn't that

WWII era stuff?

 

Most of what is thought of as the "Pulp Era" is actually contained primarily in the years leading up to WWII (although WWII is also lumped in there). Pulp Hero is (IMO) the best genre book Hero has produced - and one of the best genre books ANY game publisher has produced. It is chock full of pulpy goodness.

 

The Twenties and Thirties were a golden age of adventure as two-fisted heroes and daring explorers came to life in the pages of pulp magazines. Now you can create roleplaying games and characters set in this thrilling era!

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

There's, what...?

 

Star HERO

 

Terran Empires

 

Worlds of Empire

 

Spacer's Toolkit

 

Scourges of the Galaxy ('07)

 

A decent selection of support material for what is only a semi-popular (by sales) genre.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

There's, what...?

 

Star HERO

 

Terran Empires

 

Worlds of Empire

 

Spacer's Toolkit

 

Scourges of the Galaxy ('07)

 

A decent selection of support material for what is only a semi-popular (by sales) genre.

You forgot Alien Wars and the licensed adventure for it.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

CRAP!

 

That was the first one I thought of too.

[eternal_sage]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

yea, well my thoughts are as follows:

 

if the settings were alittle more interesting, i'd be willing to pick them up. however, the only settings that i think are very good would be... well Tuala Morn (thanks to the people who got me to pick it up!). but i like to go outside the box alot, as well, so my opinions may be of little use to you. i think that many of the settings are just to generic, or don't have a neat enough concept. few of them have that "grab it" factor or uniqueness of something like a Iron Kingdoms, or a Eberron, or a Warlords of the Accordlands, or any of the mulitple interesting sci-fi settings out these (sadly few for RP, most for movies, games, or tv). however, just as normal, i have to say i've only skimmed the books at my local gamestore, but they didn't grab me like many other things have (which is sad, considering i don't even like d20 anymore, and nWoD is still a second favorite) but unless is core goodies, i don't get it from HERO. i'd LOVE to give them my money, but i just can't on my budget. if i made twice as much, i could afford to pick up books of limited (to no) usefulness to me, in the off chance they could be cool on a full read.

 

wow. thats a long runon paragraph...

[Savinien]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

That's why we play Star Hero. You can use the system to build all those interesting ones from TV, Movie, and books.

 

Make mine HERO.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

That's why we play Star Hero. You can use the system to build all those interesting ones from TV' date=' Movie, and books.[/quote']This, unfortunately, is the most common complaint against the Terran Empire setting: it's considered too bland. Some of what my SH articles address are ways to spice it up -- I've had two articles on alien powers already, plus some alternate Human genotypes and what the Star*Guard would look like during that era, and I have one on extraterrestrial martial arts -- but the official published material just doesn't go far enough "outside the box" to capture the interest of GMs who could just as easily create their own universes.

 

Hopefully Scourges of the Galaxy (which, the last I saw, was due out next year, not this) will change that with some colorful and interesting NPCs.

[Eodin]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Yes, it's those "wow" settings that I keep looking for, to convert. I'm keeping an eye out at my local Half Price Books for a copy of the Serenity RPG book, so I can convert it to HERO

On the other hand, I don't think I could stand playing in a Red Dwarf Hero campaign, even though I enjoyed the first few seasons of Red Dwarf.

 

Even if we don't play in Terran Empire campaigns, though, it DOES provide good thought-provoking detail on what we need to consider if we're going to build our own. The overall problem is we all have different tastes. One of my most successful sci-fi campaigns was my Star Trek Hero campaign, but not everyone likes Star Trek. I was intrigued by the Homeworld books, but when I broached the idea with my gaming group, they were a unanimous thumbs down.

 

So what does Hero games have to produce? Things with the greatest general appeal, that can be tweaked or borrowed from for individualized campaigns. Steve has expounded many times on the problems of licensing specific properties like Star Trek or LOTR.

 

I think at this point I'm rambling, but the point I'm trying to make is that Hero provides the basics, and the wow campaigns are up to us, because what is wow to you may be ho-hum to me.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

This' date=' unfortunately, is the most common complaint against the Terran Empire setting: it's considered too bland. Some of what my SH articles address are ways to spice it up -- I've had two articles on alien powers already, plus some alternate Human genotypes and what the Star*Guard would look like during that era, and I have one on extraterrestrial martial arts -- but the official published material just doesn't go far enough "outside the box" to capture the interest of GMs who could just as easily create their own universes.[/quote']

 

I actually don't think Terran Empire is too bland - the scope of the book is too wide. It should have picked an era and really drilled into it, and pay lip service to the rest of the time frame: It started here, civil war here - this should have page 1-3 pages tops.

 

Terran Empire has great potential to turn into Battletech level political intrigue with the Five Houses. But the book tried to cover to much time in too little space.

 

Personally I'd love to get into and fill out a standard Terran Empire setting game. But I am having a ton of fun with Nolgroth's mix of Star Frontiers and Terran Empire.

[eternal_sage]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

well, soup is bland both with to few ingredients, and when watered down to fill more bowls. just saying.

[Steve Long]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Well the more material that is created for SH the bigger the profit share will be for it, and the stronger the demand will become.

 

With all due respect -- the evidence tends to show that you're incorrect in thinking this. This is a great formula for driving an RPG company out of business.

 

Besides SH itself (which sells quite well), we've produced a decent selection of SH books: Terran Empire; Spacer's Toolkit; Alien Wars; Worlds Of Empire. That's not close to the Champions line, but it's a respectable amount of support.

 

I've seen the sales figures, and they simply don't justify producing many more SH books. If we follow the theory of "produce more books, and they'll all sell better," there'll be no end to a series of sub-par performing supplements and we will go out of business fairly quickly. There's absolutely no evidence that "more books = more sales of all books in that line."

 

We're willing to give a line a book or three to see if it's popular enough to continue, but if it doesn't justify itself with sales we're not going to continue beating a dead horse. That would be irresponsible business on many levels.

 

Believe me, I'd love it if the SH line did better. I have plenty of ideas for expanding our existing settings, for filling out the future of the Hero Universe timeline, for expanding on the Solar Smith campaign, and even for all-new settings and projects (two or three of these in particular). But for now, at least, that (star)ship has sailed, driven away by the (solar) winds of poor SH line earnings.

[Hermit]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Steve, is there any possibility of Hero Plus/PDF only products for the Terran Empire setting getting a chance?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

Steve' date=' is there any possibility of Hero Plus/PDF only products for the Terran Empire setting getting a chance?[/quote']

 

Clearly I'm not Steve, but the precedent for having things in that format done by the company, e.g. the Hero Plus Adventures series, is that Steve would have to have the free time and interest to write them himself, for fun. The PDF only products haven't sold enough to justify hiring writers and artists, or having Steve and Andy devote a lot of editorial/layout time to them.

 

OTOH we already have one licensed adventure for the Alien Wars setting, so I bet that Steve would be open to such an arrangement for TE.

 

It might be cool to take all the additional material for TE that's been published in Digital Hero - characters, races, tech, adventures, and details about the setting that didn't make it into the original sourcebook - and publish them in one collected volume. Likely wouldn't require much additional time or expense.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Star Hero:?

 

It might be cool to take all the additional material for TE that's been published in Digital Hero - characters' date=' races, tech, adventures, and details about the setting that didn't make it into the original sourcebook - and publish them in one collected volume. Likely wouldn't require much additional time or expense.[/quote']

 

I just went through the Tables of Contents for Digital Hero, just looking for stuff related to the Terran Empire setting, and found quite a lot to choose from.

 

 

(DH #8): LEFTOVER HERO

These alien species and psionic rules were cut from Terran Empire. (11 pages)

 

(DH #9): LEFTOVER HERO

Terran Empire, big as the actual book is, still has enough meat to cook up a serving of campaigning leftovers. (9 pages)

 

(DH# 10): MATHIAS AROMAK

This planetary dictator… uh, I mean benevolent all-powerful ruler… can be a serious antagonist for Star Hero characters. (5 pages)

 

(DH #11): YOUR HOROSCOPE FOR: CANCER

The Shiseki, Star Hero’s crablike alien enemies, are claiming to defect. Is it real, or a ruse? (10 pages)

 

(DH # 18): TERRAN DIPLOMATIC SECURITY FORCE (6 pages)

 

(DH #23): M’LARRNE

This Star Hero race of dog-evolved aliens has a history of intrigue and guerilla warfare. (15 pages)

 

(DH #33): THE GALACTIC MINERS' GUILD

Try these terrain tricks, techniques, and talents from the interstellar experts on tunneling and tectonics. (15 pages)

 

(DH #36): SENSORS? WHICH SENSORS?

This listing of Terran Empire and AlienWars starship sensors provides game mechanics for dozens of abilities. (12 pages)

 

(DH #41): STAR*GUARD 2640

The Star*Guard in the non-powered future will still protect the galaxy, but rely more on technology. (11 pages)

 

(DH #43): TERRAN EMPIRE MILITARY SHIPS

In the far future, humanity will build vast spacecraft for a variety of military uses such as stealth and diplomacy. (15 pages)

 

 

That's 109 pages, surely enough to cull from for a compilation.