Cardinal Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Hello assembled Herophiles. I have scratched together a little coin and have been pondering what book to pick up. The following is a list of what I have: Hero 5E Champions Champions Universe CUNotW CKC VVV Champions WW Millenium City USPD UMA Ultimate Mentalist Ultimate Brick Viper: COTS Until: DOF Hidden Lands Shades of Black Does anyone have any particular favorites that did not make my list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Ultimate Skill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigJackBrass Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Ultimate Skill. Absolutely. A superb piece of work, very handy to give the "Batman"-types more oomph. Personally I'm quite fond of The Mystic World, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Ultimate Skill. QFT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
culhwch Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Ultimate Skill. Agreed! Very good for your skill-based heroes. Ultimate Speedster is also good if you have any speedster-types. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Ultimate Skill is good for any Character in any campaign. It takes Skills up to the next level. I've read all the books... this is a truly universal piece of work and should go next to the Rulebook in absolute usefulness to playing the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Personally, I always recommend HSCH and HSEG. But I have deep love for The Ultimate Skill. Do you have Pulp HERO? Also a great text. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Mhoram Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Ultimate Skill. If you are running a skill heavy game it's great. If your champs games feel more power based, where skills are useful, but not dominant, I'd skip it. Not a single game I have been in since the book has come out (4 different GMs, with four different styles) has bothered to use this book after having read it (aside from the new "Ulitmate" skills). It is the least used Ultimate book I've seen in FtF gaming. Combat Handbook is a much more referenced book at our table. Ultimate Speedsters and Metamorph are both very solid books. Also while not Champions U, Gestalt by Scott Bennie and the two Algernon Files books, all from Blackwrym are amazingly excellent. Even if you don't use the setting in Gestalt there are lots of good ideas and characters there, and the Algy files are the best Character collections I've seen for a long time. Of all the subsetting books, Vibora Bay was my favorite, full of color and flavor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cardinal Posted February 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Thanks everyone for your recommendations. Keep them coming. Do you have Pulp HERO? Also a great text. I don't have Pulp hero, but I am definitely open to non-champions books if they are good. I was considering both Pulp Hero and Fantasy Hero in addition to many of the one ones recommended. I hadn't thought about Utlimate Skill before, but the general outcry will definitely put it on the list for review. How broad based is Utlimate Metamorph? I absolutely loved UMA and thought Ultimate Brick was pretty solid. I was a bit disappointed in Ulimate Mentalist, but that is partially because I had very high hopes for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alibear Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Fantasy Hero if you don't already have it is a must. The Bestiary is very good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Fantasy Hero if you don't already have it is a must. The Bestiary is very good too. I'd vote Fantasy Hero over Ultimate Skill, personally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? put it on the list for review. Review? There's the magic word! Here's a review of all the books: Collected Reviews I don't think I posted CCC to that list yet though... I should do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teflon Billy Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? All of them! What? I'm offended that people don't all have the complete 5th Edition set like I do. TB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanderer Posted February 9, 2008 Report Share Posted February 9, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? If you own Ultimate Mentalist and Brick, I would absolutely complete the power archetypes collection by buying Ultimate Speedster, Energy Projector, and Metamorph. All are very solid, and inspirational books which are very useful for shaping characters based on the respective concepts. Ultimate Mystic is rather good too but it somewhat suffers from the fact that some of the basic ideas and concepts that make up the archetype are discussed in another book, Mystic World (just like the way treatment of the Martial Artist is incomplete with UMA alone, you need Ninja Hero too), so I place it to the bottom of the list. Ultimate Skill is a ery good book too, my appreciation of it is only somewhat diminished by the fact I rather despise skill-based heroes a la Batman. Likewise if you have USPD I it would be very good to complete it with USPD II. I would only add that if you have a complete set of the Ultimate power Archetypes books, most of the power builds detailed in USPD I-II are reprinted there, only with a different organization, SFX or power archetype. Last but not least, consider the Character Creation Handbook. It reprints the character creation rules from Fred with integration of most (albeit not all) of the nice little rule variants, options, and tweaks that have been published these late years in books like the ultimate series. It's kinda like a Hero 5th ed. Rev V. 2.0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maidenforce19 Posted February 9, 2008 Report Share Posted February 9, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Star Hero if you like Sci-Fi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hfergus Posted February 9, 2008 Report Share Posted February 9, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? I don't have Ultimate Skill (it's next on my list especially after all the people ranking it high), so I can't speak on it. If you have a mystic twist or mystic hero, I'd reccomend Demon, Sevants of Darkness. Fun if your mind works that way. Next I'd reccomend Ultimate Speedster. It made me want to build and play a speedster where I never had before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maidenforce19 Posted February 9, 2008 Report Share Posted February 9, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Fantasy Hero you should try too, as well as Galactic Champions, Ultimate Martial Artist, and Ninja Hero (4th or 5th edition one). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maidenforce19 Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Is this specifically just for HERO? Because I can give some suggestions for other systems if you wish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cardinal Posted March 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Based on some recommendations from here, and some from elsewhere, I opted for Gestalt. I'm very impressed with the book as it is very clearly a labor of love. There are lots of nuances in the world, good art and a neat concept. It is a bit darker at times than is my normal style, but overall I'm very happy with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maidenforce19 Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Based on some recommendations from here, and some from elsewhere, I opted for Gestalt. I'm very impressed with the book as it is very clearly a labor of love. There are lots of nuances in the world, good art and a neat concept. It is a bit darker at times than is my normal style, but overall I'm very happy with it. Did you already start playing with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cardinal Posted March 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Nope. Not yet. I am still reviewing it and getting my hands around it. It is a large book and has tons of info. My hat is off to Scott for a great piece of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maidenforce19 Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? I'll have to look into this game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GestaltBennie Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? Nope. Not yet. I am still reviewing it and getting my hands around it. It is a large book and has tons of info. My hat is off to Scott for a great piece of work. Thanks Cardinal. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maidenforce19 Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? I just read up on Gestalt and it looks pretty interesting so far. But as a side question/note, is it free for companies to make books using the HERO system like it is with the OGL for d20? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GestaltBennie Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Re: What Book Should I Buy Next? I just read up on Gestalt and it looks pretty interesting so far. But as a side question/note' date=' is it free for companies to make books using the HERO system like it is with the OGL for d20?[/quote'] No, you have to pay a small fee per book (exact figures escape me at the moment, but if you're interested in doing your own, I'm sure Hero would be glad to discuss it via private email). IMO, it's pretty reasonable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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