HERO Plus sources

[Rumbane]

I was looking at the Ultimate titles. Some appear to be 5e - some HERO Plus. In particular, The Ultimate Super Mage (H+). Is this title perfectly valid for 5e or are there things I'll need to know?

 

Or is it Fuzion? Or 4e? It all sounds rather confusing.

[IndianaJoe3]

All of the Ultimate books on sale from the Hero Store are 5e, except for The Ultimate Base (6e). I think that there was a 4e book called The Ultimate Super Mage, but I don't own a copy so I can't confirm. It would have come out in the same time period as Fuzion, so it might have stats for both.

[Ndreare]

I think most of the ultimate books are valid across editions.

The book of the book is game theory on an archetype with some game mechanics thrown in.

Changing an entangle build from 4th, or 5th to 6th will be easy.

Imagine them like a bestiery out a setting book in that they are still useful but some of the point values may have changed.

[Scott Baker]

I don't think I have a copy of Super Mage. There is the 5E Ultimate Mystic book.

[Chris Goodwin]

I do have the Ultimate Supermage.  It was released for 4e, but should be perfectly usable with 5e.  4e and 5e are probably more similar than any two other editions.

[Lord Liaden]

The 4E Ultimate Super Mage contains most of what was reprinted and updated for 5E in The Mystic World, as well as a lot of the 5E Ultimate Mystic, which is a source book for using real-world and fictional occult lore for gaming in general, and HERO gaming in particular. USM does include a few details and write-ups that were never updated to 5E. As Chris Goodwin notes, 4E and 5E are about 90% compatible with each other, so using material for one with the other is pretty easy.

 

The material in USM was significantly supplemented in a followup 4E book, The Super Mage Bestiary, little of which has been subsequently reprinted anywhere. USM and SMB were only ever in electronic form, and can be hard to find today. If you're interested, I would investigate used and collector RPG retailers for The Ultimate Ultimate Collection, which was one of the few things released by Hero Games during the unfortunate period it was owned by Cybergames.com. It's a CD which collects all of the 4E "Ultimate" books: The Ultimate Super Mage, The Super Mage Bestiary, The Ultimate Martial Artist, and The Ultimate Mentalist. I own that CD collection, and I'm glad I do.

[Vondy]

Here's my question.... does anyone have the old stats for Vincent Demeitros (sp?)

[Lord Liaden]

Well, I do have the 4E book Mystic Masters, which AFAIK has the only full write-up for Vincent Dimitrios. I don't have his character sheet in electronic form, though, and even if I did I don't want to violate IP rights by posting it.

 

Vondy, if you want to discuss it, feel free to PM me.

[Ndreare]

The 4E Ultimate Super Mage contains most of what was reprinted and updated for 5E in The Mystic World, as well as a lot of the 5E Ultimate Mystic, which is a source book for using real-world and fictional occult lore for gaming in general, and HERO gaming in particular. USM does include a few details and write-ups that were never updated to 5E. As Chris Goodwin notes, 4E and 5E are about 90% compatible with each other, so using material for one with the other is pretty easy.

 

The material in USM was significantly supplemented in a followup 4E book, The Super Mage Bestiary, little of which has been subsequently reprinted anywhere. USM and SMB were only ever in electronic form, and can be hard to find today. If you're interested, I would investigate used and collector RPG retailers for The Ultimate Ultimate Collection, which was one of the few things released by Hero Games during the unfortunate period it was owned by Cybergames.com. It's a CD which collects all of the 4E "Ultimate" books: The Ultimate Super Mage, The Super Mage Bestiary, The Ultimate Martial Artist, and The Ultimate Mentalist. I own that CD collection, and I'm glad I do.

I have the CD and think I have not used it in years and years. I should sell it on eBay.

[Hyper-Man]

Here is a link to a database showing all the different Ultimate Series books including what edition they were for:

http://rpggeek.com/rpgseries/3006/the-ultimate-series-hero-system

 

Here's one for all the different Hero Plus stuff:

http://rpggeek.com/rpgseries/7326/hero-plus-adventures

[Tasha]

All of the Ultimate books on sale from the Hero Store are 5e, except for The Ultimate Base (6e). I think that there was a 4e book called The Ultimate Super Mage, but I don't own a copy so I can't confirm. It would have come out in the same time period as Fuzion, so it might have stats for both.

The Ultimate Base and Hero system Skills are both 5e/6e books. I am pretty sure that The Ultimate Vehicle is similar. The rules for making Bases and Vehicles really didn't change much between editions. The Hero System Skills (prev called Ultimate Skill) only changed in the naming of one skill (Seduction in 5e to Charm in 6e). Like everything in the 5e library, Some powernames changed and a few changed the way they were purchased (Growth and Regeneration). Using the powerconcepts from the Ultimate Series shouldn't be that hard to convert to 6e.