Wish List: Other Licensed Content

[Jas]

The MHI kickstarter was quick to reach 100% funding, and still has two weeks to climb higher.

 

That makes me wonder if there aren't other properties that could be looked into that would have similar success stories. So I ask you, HERO community, to dream big, and then maybe dream a little more realistically. What would be your dream licensed product, and what ones do you think actually have a shot?

 

As an example, I'd love to see the Dresden novels brought into the HERO system, officially, but with the existing FATE edition it seems less than likely. ASOIAF would be lovely as well, but again, someone's already doing it. And blast it, I'm pretty sure there's already at least one, if not more, Black Company games out there...

 

So for less dreaming, it would be wonderful to see Harry Turtledove's Videssos made into a licensed HERO product. I'm almost certain nobody's done that yet!

[bluesguy]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

There are a world of fantasy book series that would make great additions - Sanctuary and the entire Fafhrd & Gray Mouser series. Or Stephen Brust's Vlad series.

[Ndreare]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

We need Steve to hook up with Brent Weeks, I would like to see both of his series (Way of Shadows & Lightbringer) make it, as well as Brandon Sanderson's, Mageborn (not liking the system that is out now)

[Tasha]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

While I can't speak for Hero Games/DOJ. I will relate something I learned from my friends in the Computer Gaming Industry. Licenses are a PITA. First most decent licenses are expensive. They can be really annoying esp if the License Holder is meddlesome. Not all Books/Movie/TV worlds translate to other media (ie To Tabletop RPGing). Anything that goes wrong will get blamed on the publishing company, not the license originator. (ie Make a decision that makes the licence fit your media better and risk the wrath of the fanbase. esp if they don't like the change).

 

Also, you don't have any real idea if the License's fanbase will even buy your licensed supplements. Kickstarter mitigates this risk somewhat. Though if a company fails enough Kickstarters, there is some who think that it diminishes their chances of getting investors in future kickstarters.

[Ndreare]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

Well I for one will not let real world economics inter fear with my dreams.

[Mickael]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

We need Steve to hook up with Brent Weeks' date=' I would like to see both of his series (Way of Shadows & Lightbringer) make it, as well as Brandon Sanderson's, Mageborn (not liking the system that is out now)[/quote']

 

Do you mean Mistborn? I have started a conversion in Hero System (even though I possess the official rules), but I have a hard time balancing characters (and with some Feruchemy powers also...)

 

So I'd also like to see an official conversion in the Hero System for B. Sanderson's Mistborn.

 

Perhaps an official conversion for the Wheel of Time (I believe that WoTC doesn't exploit the license anymore, and I'm pretty sure Steve knows about the universe...)

[Ndreare]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

Yeh I meant Mistborn.

Steve already said one more than one occasion he does not care for Wheel of Time (which is ironic), so I have no hopes of him doing it again. But if someone else picked it up and ran with it it could work.

 

Another series I enjoyed was called Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. Pretty basic magic system, but it was well done.

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

The nice thing about the Hero System is that the licensing can work the other way - media producers licensing the Hero System to produce games for their settings. They control their own IP and don't have to design a new system (or shoehorn it into d20), Hero gets publicity, and fans get a game out of it. Everybody wins!

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

For years I've dreamed of winning enough money to bankroll a formal published game supplement based on our forum colleague Keith Curtis's magnificent Savage Earth HERO campaign setting. For anyone not familiar with it, it's a magical post-apocalyptic future Earth that's like a more adult and serious, and vastly more detailed version of the classic Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon series.

 

Keith has put a huge amount of high-quality Savage Earth material for free viewing on his website: http://www.savageearth.net/ . There's easily a large book's worth of stuff there already: background info and history, setting-specific game mechanics, races and creatures, numerous NPCs, extensive campaign logs, and many excellent maps and character illustrations, in color. It would just need editorial organization, and conversion of the game mechanics and stats from Fifth Edition to Sixth.

 

I really think SE would need to be full-color and hardcover to do it justice; but this could be a unique "prestige" HERO product that IMHO would draw attention to the game from a lot of folks unfamiliar with it.

[Jas]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

I really think SE would need to be full-color and hardcover to do it justice; but this could be a unique "prestige" HERO product that IMHO would draw attention to the game from a lot of folks unfamiliar with it.

 

I think that similar styles of material has helped to propel Savage Worlds to the position it holds in current RPG circles. They came at it from the direction of Deadlands, and expanded it out to include many different published settings right away, akin to the way GURPS did things back when 2nd and 3rd edition were out - mostly "world books" instead of "mechanics books" like they do now.

[Laundry Knight]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

Since we are daydreaming instead of planning, for science fiction, both Star Trek and Star Wars would be obvious. I'm not sure how well it would translate, but I loved the Dune novels also the Well World books by Jack L. Chalker would make interesting worlds to play in. Riverworld by Farmer is also interesting. Larry Niven's universe would work well also. Old serials, like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Rocky Jones would also entertaining.

 

For super hero, Champions versions of DC and Marvel are obvious. Justice Machine was interesting. And, there are other gaming companies that had interest worlds that might work well with the Hero treatment. GURPS Supers and Villains & Vigilantes both had interesting worlds to play in. There were also a number of Saturday morning cartoon super heroes that might fit well into an amalgamated super world.

 

For fantasy, I'm not as keen, but I loved the Xanth, Belgarian, and Myth novels when I was younger, and I liked the old stop animation movies like Jason and the Argonauts and the original Clash of the Titans. I would classify heroes like John Carter of Mars and Tarzan in the fantasy vein though John Carter is probably more sci-fi than fantasy.

 

Also, how about King Kong and Godzilla license to draw in all of the classic giant monster movies.

[Tasha]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

Of course Brust's Dragaera novels, Edding's Belgariad, George RR Martin's WildCards were all based either entirely or partially on PnP Gaming done by the writers.

 

The World that the Belgariad take place in has been at least partially published by Midkemia Press (There have been issues with IP ownership between Eddings and the other Midkemia Press folk).

 

For Supers, I think it's really hard to add another Hero team to either Marvel's or DC's universes. It's kind of hard for the PC's to feel important when the question arises. ie Why aren't the Avengers, Fantastic Four, The Justice League dealing with this menace. The answer "they are busy with other things" can sometimes strain the suspension of belief with players. The other answer is that the team is constantly dealing with "B" listers, but who really wants to constantly do that.

 

Star Trek and Star Wars have the problem of how to introduce a party of PC's. In Trek, are the PC's the crew of a Big Ship like the Enterprise or of something smaller. or even a civilian trader? Does the game feel enough like the show the players like to bother.

 

Star Wars has that other problem. If you are playing during any of the Movie Periods. How do the players fit in with the events of the movie? If someone wants to play a Jedi, how does that work (esp during the period from late ep 3 - ep 6 when the Jedi were hunted down and all but extinct). If you play without Jedi, how is the game any different from any other generic SciFi Game.

[Laundry Knight]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

DC, Marvel, Star Trek, and Star Wars have had successful RPGs. Some of them still have avid followers though now defunct. I have even ran or played in many of them. Regarding suspension of belief in super hero RPGs. It requires just as much suspension of of disbelief to read comic books from those worlds. Why does the JLA never help Superman save the planet when it is being threatened in Superman's own book instead the Justice League of America's book? They just don't. Where are the X-Men and the Avengers when Galactus is trying to eat Earth in Fantastic Four's book? Same issue.

 

I have ran Star Wars WEG, and I still have most of my books. It really isn't that hard to introduce characters. It's a big galaxy, and you can travel rather far without running into Luke Skywalker and friends. The hardest part is choosing the tone you want and enforcing it with the players, such as no Jedi in fringe campaign, no assassins in a Jedi campaign, and so forth. It isn't much different than Hero in the part.

 

The campaign I was trying to put together before I discovered Hero was Star Trek using LUG's system. Actually, having the characters on a large ship has advantages. Like it is easy working in a new character. If you get tired of playing your security officer, you can create a scientist and just say he has never shown up in any scenes until now.

 

For the licensing issues, my understanding of this exercise is that it is just for fun. Kind of like imagining what you would do if you were to win the lottery. You can put down anything you like regardless of how unlikely it would happen.

[Burrito Boy]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

Dream big? Okay here goes...

 

I say we build a time machine then gather a contingent of Howard fans--say Rex Mundi, Duster Boy, and yours truly (sorry if I left anyone out, but the time machine is gonna be built using a junked car from an old Tilt-A-Whirl ride)--to travel back to 1934 or thereabouts, find Robert E. Howard, teach him the Hero system (that's what Rex and Duster are for ), then have him write a Hyborean Age RPG complete with setting, characters, and a ton of adventure books. After that, and assuming I can drag myself away from the object of my fanboy obsession, we'll head from Cross Plains to Providence and have a go at H.P. Lovecraft. Hell, why not take Howard along. There won't be any room in the time machine so...ROAD TRIP!!!

 

Failing that, we could get somebody to write a setting book based on the Horseclans books by Robert Adams. If it was good enough for GURPS, it's good enough for Hero.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

Of course Brust's Dragaera novels, Edding's Belgariad, George RR Martin's WildCards were all based either entirely or partially on PnP Gaming done by the writers.

 

The World that the Belgariad take place in has been at least partially published by Midkemia Press (There have been issues with IP ownership between Eddings and the other Midkemia Press folk).

Really? Hadn't heard anything about a Midkema/Eddings connection. I know Feist's Riftwar series is set in Midkema, and is basically "D&D campaign versus Empire of The Petal Throne:Fight!".

I've used Dragaera and Newhon for FH games before, and enjoyed both, but if if HERO were to go after licenses I'd actually prefer to see them do licensed conversions of some other game settings, especially some of the ones that had great potential but are now mostly defunct, often due to poor rules holding them back. I know I've wanted to do both Fringeworthy and The Morrow Project using HERO, did use The Mechanoid Invasion as the basis for a SH campaign, and I thought that Traveller Hero was a natural fit and I'm still annoyed about the shenanigans that got pulled. I think Glorantha Hero could be epic, and Harn Hero seems to have a solid following already...

[Tasha]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

Really? Hadn't heard anything about a Midkema/Eddings connection. I know Feist's Riftwar series is set in Midkema, and is basically "D&D campaign versus Empire of The Petal Throne:Fight!".

 

 

I've used Dragaera and Newhon for FH games before, and enjoyed both, but if if HERO were to go after licenses I'd actually prefer to see them do licensed conversions of some other game settings, especially some of the ones that had great potential but are now mostly defunct, often due to poor rules holding them back. I know I've wanted to do both Fringeworthy and The Morrow Project using HERO, did use The Mechanoid Invasion as the basis for a SH campaign, and I thought that Traveller Hero was a natural fit and I'm still annoyed about the shenanigans that got pulled. I think Glorantha Hero could be epic, and Harn Hero seems to have a solid following already...

 

Whoops, You are right, it's Feist's riftwar. I get those two series mixed up in my head all of the time.

 

Mechanoid Invasion is Kevin Sembieda's company. There's apparently even a newish version of it written for the Palladium system.

 

I have never really looked at TriTac's Fringeworthy. The Morrow Project is available as PDF's on the Author's website. You are right that it's easier to do a conversion of a world that is already created for a PnP RPG.

 

Traveller Hero was both nice and a bit Disappointing. No offense to the Author(s), but it never felt "right" to me. I ended up using things there as a starting point and ended up doing my own versions of pretty much everything. For Starships I kind of used the Traveller System and some handwaving.

 

Harn Hero could be fun. I played in a short Harn Hero Campaign back in the 90's. The hard part was reconsiling the HarnWorld material talking about how there's no magic, then reading HarnMaster and seeing much more magic than the world books described. We ended up going with a medium to light magic feel.

 

Runequest Hero could be interesting. I only played Runequest a couple of times, so I never got the feel for the world. Ducks, and Elves made of Vegitable matter were my takeaways from Glorantha.

 

Stargate Hero would be really solid. Stargate is a pretty cinematic world. Though you have to decide as a GM if the players are SG-1 or SG-who gives a darn. With Atlantis and the wider galaxy open to both Starship and Wormhole. You could still have a ton of fun adventures.

 

City of Heroes Hero would be a nice way to keep that game alive for some players. Who knows who actually owns the IP and if they would be willing to licence it.

 

Shadowrun Hero could also be very fun.

 

R.Tal's Cyberpunk 2020 would be a nice world for Hero. Also things shouldn't be that hard to translate to Hero Stats. I know that Mike Pondsmith is a Hero fan. That's how FUZION was created by his desire to have the best of both worlds. I also heard that he used to run a really fun game of Champions back in the day. (Gaming in the Bay Area back in the 80's and 90's was a pretty small circle that had people that moved between many gaming circles)

 

A speaking of R Talsorian IPs Castle Falkenstein would be really a scream in Hero. Give it a nicely crunchy system for those of use that don't care for the Minimalist system.

 

WEG's TORG could be a fun world to revive with decent rules.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

R.Tal's Cyberpunk 2020 would be a nice world for Hero. Also things shouldn't be that hard to translate to Hero Stats. I know that Mike Pondsmith is a Hero fan. That's how FUZION was created by his desire to have the best of both worlds. I also heard that he used to run a really fun game of Champions back in the day. (Gaming in the Bay Area back in the 80's and 90's was a pretty small circle that had people that moved between many gaming circles)

I know it well... The Elder members of my H/S HERO group who headed off to UC Santa Cruz were, I'm pretty sure, the guys who really got him hooked on Hero. I know they mostly ended up working as production staff at R. Tas

I distinctly remember that Arisaka Industries was a badguy corp from our proto-Star Hero game long before Cyberpunk was written.

It both amused and amazed me when I opened up Cyberpunk and found them playing a prominent role.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

As to Fringeworthy, You'd prolly REALLY like it.

There's a good reason there have long been accusations against the Stargate franchise for plagiarism. The Gate systems have a LOT of similarities, but the Fringeworthy gates end up working in a very plot friendly fashion... the gates take you to sort of a pocket dimension/roadspace, and you can navigate the system to travel to different times, alternate dimensions, you name it, fairly easily. Just try not to stumble across the shapeshifting, all-consuming, self-replicating monsters that destroyed the Gatebuilders who created them.

 

Stargate plus Sliders about covers it.

[Jas]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

Well, if we're including existing RPGs in this, then yes, The Third Imperium, Star Frontiers and Shadowrun are three that I would love to see formalized.

[pruttm]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

Thundarr the barbarian! Now!

[Tasha]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

Well' date=' if we're including existing RPGs in this, then yes, [b']The Third Imperium[/b], Star Frontiers and Shadowrun are three that I would love to see formalized.

 

The Third Imperium is usually known a Classic Traveller

[Jas]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

The Third Imperium is usually known a Classic Traveller

 

To most, yeah. The original CT didn't have a default universe, and the Imperium just grew up organically over time. I was in middle school when I first met Traveller, and the Imperium was pretty well situated by then ('82).

 

I gave the Traveller Hero book a look, the v0.9 PDF at least, but it was too full of references to the Terran Empire book that I didn't have. I'd love to see it done right, from the ground up - but with both Marc Miller and Mongoose doing products, it seems an unlikely one.

[psyber624]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

I'd love to see some of the GW stuff given a HERO facelift for RPing, I haven't had a chance to check out their current RP material yet (although if I ever get caught up on my HERO purchases its on the books.) I still love WH, WH40k, and Blood Bowl.

[tadk]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

sanctuary was a TSR product a long time ago along with F & GM for Lankhmar. No idea about Vlad Taltos though.

[Tasha]

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content

 

sanctuary was a TSR product a long time ago along with F & GM for Lankhmar. No idea about Vlad Taltos though.

 

Actually the Robert Asprin and friends Anthology books that took place in the city of "Sanctuary" supplements were published by Chaosium (I own the original). The City info was put together by Midkemia Press. It included maps of the city, encounter tables, and 1st ed A-D&D writeups for all of the Characters that appeared in the first 5 books or so.

 

Yeah, TSR did a Crappy version of Lankhmar.

 

Don't know what F or GM is talking about.

 

The Vlad Taltos series has not had an Offical RPG supplement written for it. I heard a rumor that the Author would do it as soon as someone comes up with a 32 sided die (the Royal cycle is 2 spins around the 16 position wheel of animals).