Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

[Laundry Knight]

I was looking at some of the pre-6th edition stuff at the online store. Some of the items look intriguing and looks like they would interesting to include in a 6th edition game and was wondering if they would be worth acquiring. The biggest question on on how to incorporate older books into the current system. I realize that background information is easy to add, but how easy would it be to convert the mechanics to 6e? Which of these would a good investment, if any? I am currently centering on Champions products but am interested in other genres supported by Herogames, but I am monetarily challenged and want to spend my money strategically.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

 

Most 5e mechanics are unchanged to 6e.

 

The biggest changes include but are not limited to:

Removal of "inches" (5e Flight 20" is Flight 40m in 6e)

No Figured Characteristics (ex: value of DEX does not affect values of SPD, OCV or DCV)

Removal of Armor & Forcefield (now replaced with Resitant Defense)

Introduction of Damage Negation (* good idea to do a board search on this one)

Re-introduction of Regeneration as its own power

Removal of Forcewall and replacement with Barrier (Entangle no longer can be used to create "barriers")

 

Everything else is minor cost tweaks (5e Overall Level costs 10 points, 6e Overall Level costs 12 points)

 

The actual game time functionality is virtually identical (other than "inches" to meters). It shouldn't be a problem to take NPC's built to 5e standards and use them in a 6e game

[The Main Man]

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

 

That about covers it. The differences between 5e and 6e are nowhere near the differences between, say, D&D 3e and 4e. If you know them mechanically well enough, you could run 5e and 6e characters side by side with minimal hassle.

[Laundry Knight]

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

 

Thanks!

[bneumeier]

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

 

One other significant change is the removal of Find Weakness. Characters who rely on Find Weakness in 5E need to be significantly reworked for 6E.

[memorax300]

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

 

To the OP I would say it all depends how much work your willing to put in to converting between books. If your just converting characters not much. If you want to say take something like Terran Empire and convert it over it requires alot more work imo. Skill packages vehicles etc all need to be altered. I started doing my own 6e conversion for Terran Empire and stayed with the 5E version because it felt like too much work imo. It may be differerent for you of course. Just wanted to point out that it may not be as easy as others are making it out to be.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

 

You can probably play characters from previous editions in 6e with little or no modification, and vice versa. The rules have not changed in any meaningful way, but some of the aspects of character creation have.

[Laundry Knight]

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

 

Does that work in reverse? I see a lot of online games that are 5e, but I only have 6e. Which leads to another question, if someone were to make 6e character for a 5e game, or vice versa, what is the comparative point cost? For instance, a typical super-hero in 6e is made with 400 pts and 75 matching complications. What would be the relevant value in 5e?

[Sean Waters]

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

 

There might be some balance issues if you are mixing 5e and 6e characters, but nothing you could not finesse easily enough. 6e characters have more starting points and fewer complications, and some of the powers are costed differently (or no longer in 6e, like Force Wall). Mechanically though it should all work fine.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

 

Does that work in reverse? I see a lot of online games that are 5e' date=' but I only have 6e. Which leads to another question, if someone were to make 6e character for a 5e game, or vice versa, what is the comparative point cost? For instance, a typical super-hero in 6e is made with 400 pts and 75 matching complications. What would be the relevant value in 5e?[/quote']

 

About 300-350 points.

A big reason that the suggested 'starting points' totals were changed from 5e to 6e was the removal of 'figured characteristics'. 'Figureds' gave a cost bonus to characteristic heavy characters that was equal or better than the one give by Elemental Controls (also removed in 6e). The best examples I can provide are the Justice League characters that I have made starting versions of for both editions (Superman, Captain Marvel, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman and Batman). In nearly all cases I had to slightly lower DEX and CV across the board with the 6e versions. 6e also de-linked the pricing of Control Cost from Pool Cost in VPP's so they became easier to apply to my 6e versions.

[Christopher]

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

 

Does that work in reverse? I see a lot of online games that are 5e' date=' but I only have 6e. Which leads to another question, if someone were to make 6e character for a 5e game, or vice versa, what is the comparative point cost? For instance, a typical super-hero in 6e is made with 400 pts and 75 matching complications. What would be the relevant value in 5e?[/quote']

As the 5E Base Books (The HERO System 5th Edition, revised) is seemingly unavailible (at least legal sources. Found more illegal downloads then I you can shake a stick at), I bought the PDF of the Character Creation Handbook.

It's like having only 6E1 (at least most parts of it), with some Errata and stuff that is in the 6E APG's rolled into it.