What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

If the sales numbers for the basic rule books are already low' date=' Hero might consider making the PDF version free to try and expand the base. Maybe more eyes seeing the rules for themselves would add more players.[/quote']

 

Thinking along the same lines, how about bundles that include the basic/core rules and a genre book?

[KawangaKid]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

Perhaps a separate thread on what hooked you to HERO in the first place, and see if the market niche(s) are different now?

 

For me, it was three things:

(1) my friends were playing it

(2) more combat options that "made sense"

(3) the game-within-a-game wherein players and GMs would compare character builds and power builds (some serious, some humorous, all evaluated based on creativity and elegance of build).

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

I think there's more we can do to avoid scaring off lurkers and new registrants to the forum: veterans can stop being A-holes to folks who post questions the veterans think are stupid' date=' or folks who post on threads the veterans consider "dead." I've seen a lot of the latter especially. That's no way to win friends or influence people.[/quote']

 

I'm not anybody special here, but if you've been treated this way by anyone here I'd like to apologize on behalf of everyone on the forum. We on the Hero Games boards have for many years made it a point of pride to be friendly and welcoming to new folk.

 

There are always exceptions, and they will likely own up to it, but by and large that's the rule of thumb here.

[The Main Man]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

Perhaps a separate thread on what hooked you to HERO in the first place, and see if the market niche(s) are different now?

 

For me, it was three things:

(1) my friends were playing it

(2) more combat options that "made sense"

(3) the game-within-a-game wherein players and GMs would compare character builds and power builds (some serious, some humorous, all evaluated based on creativity and elegance of build).

For some reason, I had this corny image of kids trading HERO power builds like baseball cards.

 

"What? You got a Blast 8d6 Autofire (3 Shots; +1/4); OIF (-1/2)? Uh!"

 

"I'll trade it to you if you got an RKA 4d6; OAF (-1)."

 

"Well, I don't know about that..."

[shuddemell]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

As someone who spent a long time away from RP'ing and came back to it... The only thing I wanted to play was Hero.. one game, one set of rule, infinite settings. I found 2 main resistances among those I approached as players... Cost and difficulty. These have both been addressed many times in this thread. For me the solution began by asking my potential players to describe their characters in prose and then letting me build them and provide character sheets once complete for them to examine. Didn't ask them to buy the game at first. This got them past the initial complexity issue... Now they want to buy the rulebooks to build their own characters... for as we all know, no one can write up your character as well as you can... In any case, my one practical suggestion is to reduce the cost of the PDF's, in particular the Basic Rulebook. Since they have no material or shipping costs, they can practically be distributed with minimal cost. That would get many to take the plunge, and I feel only after playing and catching the Hero System in its glory can those be swayed... My two cents, less taxes.

[megaplayboy]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

I thought the point of this thread was to see how we on the board can help advertise the game to those unfamiliar with it to encourage them to spend money on HERO and help the company through its current financial crisis.

 

Not, "what can I get for free".

 

Well, I've also suggested (here and elsewhere) ways to provide extra value to players--for example, there's around 100+ Hero products from the pre-5th era. I don't know what the licensing and reprinting requirements would be, but converting some, most or all of those into pdfs and selling them for a nominal sum(1-5 bucks) could be a source of additional revenue for the company and a good way to provide additional resources. Of course, running games, talking up the system at cons and FLGS and RPG meetups is all good, too. But one of the problems with keeping the system going is that product flow, for the next couple years, is likely to be slow. So it's prudent to talk about what can be done to make up that shortfall--new players will want to know what kind of support there is for the product line. 1st party, 3rd party, old product, fan-made free stuff--it's all relevant to that, imo.

[The Main Man]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

Hm... the Basic Rulebook keeps coming up.

 

I think if we make material, we should not only explain our design philosophy, but also what level of the rules one should have to be able to use the submission. All of this would be to help new players learn the system and veterans to learn alternate perspectives.

 

Perhaps the three levels can be:

Basic - character or power require only the Basic rules to create/understand.

Core - character or power require the core rulebooks to create/understand.

Advanced - character or power requires advanced rulebooks to create/understand

 

So if I were to build a character that is completely compatible with the Basic rules, it could be a "Basic Power," or a "Basic Character." "Core Powers" and "Core Characters" use the core rulebooks, and "Advanced Powers" and "Advanced Characters" use the Advanced rule books.

[The Main Man]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

I thought the point of this thread was to see how we on the board can help advertise the game to those unfamiliar with it to encourage them to spend money on HERO and help the company through its current financial crisis.

 

Not, "what can I get for free".

The point was how we, as humble HERO system fans and players, can help HERO survive and maintain a presence within the role-playing community at large in the long term. It's a big umbrella of possibilities, but much of my initial suggestions boiled down to "free stuff for the prospective new player."

 

Not that free advertising by way of proselytism isn't something we couldn't try to do, but I think we're thinking of an organized way to use HERO's toolkit aspect to forge a communal resource project that can be maintained over a long period of time.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

The best way: Keep bringing in new players who have disposable income to buy books fairly regularly. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. And as the advance of technology continues, that's going to prove more and more difficult as time goes on.

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

Mine boils down to, reduce the barriers to entry. If that means free stuff, or more bang for the buck, or free ice cream, I say go for it.

 

Pie.

[dmjalund]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

I want free ice cream!

[itsalwayssunny]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

I thought the point of this thread was to see how we on the board can help advertise the game to those unfamiliar with it to encourage them to spend money on HERO and help the company through its current financial crisis.

 

Not, "what can I get for free".

 

I apologize if my responding to someone's question offended you. I will try to be more mindful of your sensitivities.

 

Now you can apologize for your posting since it's also unrelated to the thread topic as defined by you.

 

Happy New Year!

[itsalwayssunny]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

I'm not anybody special here, but if you've been treated this way by anyone here I'd like to apologize on behalf of everyone on the forum. We on the Hero Games boards have for many years made it a point of pride to be friendly and welcoming to new folk.

 

There are always exceptions, and they will likely own up to it, but by and large that's the rule of thumb here.

 

You ARE somebody special and don't you forget it!

--Kap

[itsalwayssunny]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

Hm... the Basic Rulebook keeps coming up.

 

I think if we make material, we should not only explain our design philosophy, but also what level of the rules one should have to be able to use the submission. All of this would be to help new players learn the system and veterans to learn alternate perspectives.

 

Perhaps the three levels can be:

Basic - character or power require only the Basic rules to create/understand.

Core - character or power require the core rulebooks to create/understand.

Advanced - character or power requires advanced rulebooks to create/understand

 

So if I were to build a character that is completely compatible with the Basic rules, it could be a "Basic Power," or a "Basic Character." "Core Powers" and "Core Characters" use the core rulebooks, and "Advanced Powers" and "Advanced Characters" use the Advanced rule books.

 

I think using "Basic" and "Core" to refer to different levels would confuse more than it would help. One might wonder: If it's not basic, how can it be core? Or, if it's core, how is it not basic?

 

Is the word "Intermediate" (or its ilk) verboten?

[The Main Man]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

I think using "Basic" and "Core" to refer to different levels would confuse more than it would help. One might wonder: If it's not basic, how can it be core? Or, if it's core, how is it not basic?

 

Is the word "Intermediate" (or its ilk) verboten?

Of course not. We're brainstorming after all - everything is up in the air, right?

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

5 pages and no one's said it...

 

"To Serve Hero" - is it a cookbook? What villain would own it?

[The Main Man]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

I agree that reducing the entry barriers is key. I further think that free, player-submitted content is the way to go for us as a community to do just that by providing endless, archived examples of characters and power builds for players to get the hang of creating them for themselves. Is HERO not best learned by example?

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

5 pages and no one's said it...

 

"To Serve Hero" - is it a cookbook? What villain would own it?

 

teh bunneh, obviously.

[Martin2]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

I'm not anybody special here, but if you've been treated this way by anyone here I'd like to apologize on behalf of everyone on the forum. We on the Hero Games boards have for many years made it a point of pride to be friendly and welcoming to new folk.

 

There are always exceptions, and they will likely own up to it, but by and large that's the rule of thumb here.

 

It happens, some posters apear to be all wize and their opinion is law.

 

You can post something that may be a comment on your point of view to the first comment or comments from someone else in the thread who also brought up their point of view. And some times one or two of the "experienced" HERO players slam you into the dirt with a reply that seems to indicate you are an idiot and why are you commenting as your point of view is irelevant.

 

That nearly stoped me commenting on posts just incase I got a similar reply (or possibly stop reading the forums all together).

 

But I am still here. But others may have left.

[Greywind]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

5 pages and no one's said it...

 

"To Serve Hero" - is it a cookbook? What villain would own it?

I've been thinking it, but 5 pages in, I feel it's kind of late for that kind of humor. I mean you could boil it, but baking it might lead to an oven fire.

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

Y'know, maybe a big book o' Champions-themed recipes plus power writeups would sell. Give the recipes cheesy names like Prof. Muerte Munch (hot cinnamon flavored popcorn), Mecha-nonfat Fudge, Quan-tummy Yummies, and the like.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

It happens, some posters apear to be all wize and their opinion is law.

 

You can post something that may be a comment on your point of view to the first comment or comments from someone else in the thread who also brought up their point of view. And some times one or two of the "experienced" HERO players slam you into the dirt with a reply that seems to indicate you are an idiot and why are you commenting as your point of view is irelevant.

 

That nearly stoped me commenting on posts just incase I got a similar reply (or possibly stop reading the forums all together).

 

But I am still here. But others may have left.

 

I'm guessing you are referring to the recent VPP thread.

 

If so, I am sorry you got caught in the crossfire.

 

First and foremost I post in this forum with the intent to help. I sometimes lose patience with relatively new posters who get preachy about rules they clearly misunderstand (especially after their position has been refuted multiple times).

I sometimes become 'short and to the point', not with the intent to make it personal but rather to educate where appropriate since Steve Long does not discuss design issues (probably to avoid situations just like this!).

It would be MUCH easier to just ignore posters who have a flawed understanding of the rules but I truly believe that would be a disservice to them as well as the next new HERO player who might search the forum for the same topic in question.

 

Sorry if I have offended anyone's sensibilities.

[Tasha]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

It happens, some posters apear to be all wize and their opinion is law.

 

You can post something that may be a comment on your point of view to the first comment or comments from someone else in the thread who also brought up their point of view. And some times one or two of the "experienced" HERO players slam you into the dirt with a reply that seems to indicate you are an idiot and why are you commenting as your point of view is irelevant.

 

That nearly stoped me commenting on posts just incase I got a similar reply (or possibly stop reading the forums all together).

 

But I am still here. But others may have left.

 

We have a couple of people here who are a bit harsh. One of them is actually a fairly new poster. We are all pretty opinionated here, though I think you will see that many of us old timers actually agree on a number of things. Though we can get kind of heated when we are trying to get a point across that the otherside won't acknowledge as being a good consideration. As a whole you will notice that most people are actually pretty helpful. Sorry if you have experienced something different.

[Steve]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

When I posted the idea of making the basic rule book a freebie, my thinking was that if it was only selling one or two copies a month as pdfs, then making the pdf of the basic rules a freebie could translate into a new player to the system and someone willing to buy other books once they've had a taste, which I would translate as a net win. Put it up on places like rpgnow.com and the like, and it might expand the base.

 

I buy plenty of books for myself and as gifts for my gamer friends, so the suggestion wasn't to get some free loot for myself.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: What Can We Do To Serve HERO?

 

When I posted the idea of making the basic rule book a freebie, my thinking was that if it was only selling one or two copies a month as pdfs, then making the pdf of the basic rules a freebie could translate into a new player to the system and someone willing to buy other books once they've had a taste, which I would translate as a net win. Put it up on places like rpgnow.com and the like, and it might expand the base.

 

I buy plenty of books for myself and as gifts for my gamer friends, so the suggestion wasn't to get some free loot for myself.

 

I'm sorry my earlier response appeared to suggest that.