Basic Rulebook

[Mickael]

Hi everybody,

 

I've just bought the Basic Rulebook for the 6th edition, that's my first Hero Games' product.

 

I haven't finished reading it yet, but I was wondering if this book will really allow me to master a few adventures before buying the complete rules. I was thinking of buying soon the new released "Champions" sourcebook, so, is the BR complete enough to understand everything in the Champions' book ?

 

Thank you

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

The basic rulebook is a decent way in.

 

The sourcebooks are heavly weighted to indicating how these various genres should/could be run and the variations on them. There are decent sections in the sourcebooks that discuss how you might use certain powers and skills when running different varieties of the genre being discussed.

 

As such, sure - the Basic Rulebook will give you a good enough understanding of the system to see what is being discussed in even the rule heavy parts of the Champions book but I would expect even someone who knew nothing about the HERO system a good understanding of the superhero genre and how to run games in the various sub-genres of superheroes.

 

Doc

[mayapuppies]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

Welcome aboard! The Basic rulebook is absolutely enough to run games and get a solid feel for how the Hero System works. If you ever hit any bumps in the road, this forum is about the best place in the world to seek advice or answers or both without getting your head bit off for being new.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

There are two things you must know about the Basic Rulebook;

 

1. It is a complete set of rules. You can run many a game with what's inside of it. Further, anything you build with the Basic Rules will work directly with the full version. All of the game mechanics (die rolls, powers, etc) are all pulled directly from 6E. There is no need to convert anything because the Basic Rulebook is just the distilled essence of 6E.

2. You will quickly realize that there are "gaps" in the Basic Rulebook rules. How to fill the gaps? You guessed it; the full Sixth Edition rules. Not to say that the rules are "incomplete." They just cover the most obvious situations. The full rules really get into the meat and potatoes of the system.

 

So now, in the meantime, enjoy your purchase. Create a few characters, build a scenario or two for your players. You'll know when it is time to upgrade.

 

As to Champions, one thing that Steve Long does real well, is write genre books. Champions could easily be sub-titled "The Definitive Handbook to Super Heroic Role Playing." I haven't even read it and I know this. Genre books are just Steve's thing. So if you have any interest in super hero gaming, I would say that Champions may well be your thing. Be aware that the characters provided in the Champions book will almost certainly be written up in accordance with the full rules. There will probably be a few things that you will see that the Basic Rulebook doesn't cover.

[Mickael]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

Ok, thank you very much for your help!

 

This forum seems to be a very good source of information, I find very instructive to read the "How to build" subjects I'm eager to start playing with my group!

[Rapier]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

Ok, thank you very much for your help!

 

This forum seems to be a very good source of information, I find very instructive to read the "How to build" subjects I'm eager to start playing with my group!

 

Oh, if there is anything we are most certainly NOT short of, it's help!

 

Welcome!

[spaceprincessecho]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

Ok, thank you very much for your help!

 

This forum seems to be a very good source of information, I find very instructive to read the "How to build" subjects I'm eager to start playing with my group!

 

Absolutely. In fact, most of the time you get way too much information (here are eight different ways to model that!) than too little.

[Rapier]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

IIRC, Champions Battlegrounds is still available. It's got a half dozen or so adventures in it. That might not be a bad thing to try. There might also be a con adventure someone might have lying around they might be willing to share with you. That way you can run a pre-genned adventure and work through the system and figure some stuff out before you go into the depth of trying to create it all on your own first time out of the box.

 

Heck, if you wanted, you could just grab some of the character's that have been posted in the Champions forum and just divvy them out to the players and keep a handful to run as enemies and just do an arena or chase scene.

[Checkmate]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

I've never read a 6th ed book (I'm stuck on 5th I like it don't wanna change), but it has been my experience that if you've played the genre before or are even pretty familiar with it, the genre books are more of a "might be kinda handy to have" rather than a "Must Have". Personally I would forget about the Champions book right now and get the Advance Rules first. I think in the long run, this will help you A LOT more than Champions.

 

If I were you though, my next purchase wouldn't be a book at all. It would be the Hero Designer software. It's software that helps you make characters. This program will teach you SO much and totally reinforce what you've read in the books. It is without a doubt what I consider the best Hero product I've ever purchased in almost 25 years of playing Hero.

[Rapier]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

I've never read a 6th ed book (I'm stuck on 5th I like it don't wanna change), but it has been my experience that if you've played the genre before or are even pretty familiar with it, the genre books are more of a "might be kinda handy to have" rather than a "Must Have". Personally I would forget about the Champions book right now and get the Advance Rules first. I think in the long run, this will help you A LOT more than Champions.

 

If I were you though, my next purchase wouldn't be a book at all. It would be the Hero Designer software. It's software that helps you make characters. This program will teach you SO much and totally reinforce what you've read in the books. It is without a doubt what I consider the best Hero product I've ever purchased in almost 25 years of playing Hero.

 

HD is about as close to rabid fan-boy as I get. I can't possibly stress how wonderful it is. It has made my life SO much easier. I used to have to spend at least an hour making a regular adversary and now I can crank him out in about 15 or 20 minutes. A lot of that is just the ease of math, but being able to drop in Modifiers without having to look them up is incredible. I've even know this one guy who actually started looking into Hero after hearing me talk about HD, and he has since converted his game over to Hero.

[rjcurrie]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

To clairfy, I suspect when Checkmate says "the Advanced Rules", he is referring to the main 6e rulebooks. I just want to clarify because there is a book called the "Advanced Player's Guide" which is not what you want right now.

[Susano]

Re: Basic Rulebook

 

Hi everybody,

 

I've just bought the Basic Rulebook for the 6th edition, that's my first Hero Games' product.

 

I haven't finished reading it yet, but I was wondering if this book will really allow me to master a few adventures before buying the complete rules. I was thinking of buying soon the new released "Champions" sourcebook, so, is the BR complete enough to understand everything in the Champions' book ?

 

Thank you

 

If you need characters to look over, you can take a look at my site (http://surbrook.devermore.net/index/) which has hundreds of characters for a wide assortment of media as well as other Hero System material. Most are in 5E (with a few even in 4E), but there's a growing collection of 6E characters.