Joe Walsh

A HERO System Basic that breaks down the game for newbies would be great. I've tried to sketch one out based on my experiences teaching HERO to new players, but the problem I always run into is that it's a game that has a higher level of irreducible complexity than most systems. Even a system as amenable to high complexity as GURPS can be run very simply, just by using pregens and turning all the options off. But with HERO, as soon as you get into combat, you need to understand the Speed Chart and all its implications, including aborting and holding actions; Turns, Segments, and Phases; 0 Phase, 1/2 Phase, 1 Phase actions; and the whole host of other things built around HERO System's unique method of keeping time in combat. I've tried giving everyone the same SPD, but a) players still need to know about post-Segment-12 Recoveries so they plan strategically based on them, b) having absolutely everyone and everything at the same SPD is very unusual for HERO games at almost any level of play, so it's only a short-term fix, and c) seeing how having a variety of different SPDs plays out in the system and the strategic opportunities that presents is something players need to experience in order to understand WHY they're being asked to learn this seemingly Baroquely designed system. I keep working on finding the best way to teach HERO, but sometimes it seems hopeless. Maybe it's just a system with steep learning curves, not all of which are amenable to gentle on-ramps.

Since we're dreaming anyway, here's my dream: First, recreate all the 1e-4e products digitally, beginning with data entry and going on through layout and the rest just as with new products, but with the goal being to create perfect digital copies of the originals. Second, apply all the errata. (Meaning legitimate errata like typos and such; no rules changes just because the old rule didn't work as well as some newer version did. We're not making new editions, just making them what they were intended to be in the first place.) Third, make it all available via POD. B&W softcovers are fine. And then, with the millions of dollars that will earn [ha!], buy back the Champions IP and then make a 4.5e that just folds in the most universally-applicable ideas from AC and the supplements. Since that will be a tremendous hit [haha!], you'll then be able to start fresh from there with new genre books and so on. Limit the rulesbook and the major genre books to 256 pages, limit supplements to 128 pages, etc. And, most importantly, keep the product coming and the fan interaction high.

For comparison, here are photos of the books from my backup, unused boxed set of 2e. The first photo is of the Champions rulebook (complete with secondary staples still on the character sheet pullout section): And here's Viper's Nest:

Hopefully they'll make it right. It's shameful they didn't catch that.

De nada, compadre. No kidding! What are the folks at Noble Knight saying?

For those curious, here are all the poses from Champions 1e:

Thanks for posting that, zslane! I didn't get a chance to do that last night.

The figures on the 1e sheets are much larger. I'm not sure of the policy on posting scanned images of character sheets, so I'll try to take some photos to post tonight.

Very cool!

I remember when salad bars first started becoming common, it didn't take long to notice that they'd start you out where the cheap stuff was, and put the expensive stuff at the far end with the dressings. That way, by the time you got there, you wouldn't have much room on your plate or bowl for that stuff.

The appeal of highly detailed RPG things escapes me, and always has. I can admire them from afar (Harnworld and Glorantha, for instance), but every time I try to get into stuff like that, my eyes glaze over. Same thing with highly detailed characters. Give me a few bits to go on and let me figure out the rest. If you've already figured all of it out for me, then it's more of a work-study program than a gaming experience for me. Heck, even when I was developing RPGs professionally I didn't bother with huge write-ups. Just a personality sketch with some bits that the GM can hang his or her performance on. Yet lots of folks like those highly detailed things. The ginormous two-volume Glorantha books and such sell well enough that people keep producing them, anyway.

You're welcome, Duke! I enjoy going through this stuff. I wish I had more time for that...maybe after retirement! I understand the passion, though -- that's why I spent so many years searching for good copies of all the 1e stuff (oh, the joy when I found that near-mint 1e GM screen). I'd missed out on 1e entirely, since I started with 2e (which, yeah, is still a great edition, no matter what the haters clinging to their precious, newfangled 3e say. ) As far as layout, yeah, 1e was...um...charmingly arranged and laid out. But it did have some artwork we never saw again, from Vic Dal Chele and Diana Navarro. I like some of it pretty well, and wish they'd carried it forward. BTW, Enemies 1e also has that charming Champions 1e layout. Plus, they left Utility off the Table of Contents.

The biggest changes from the first edition of Champions to the second are around END. For example, in 1e the END Battery gets you no bonus at x12, whereas in 2e it only takes an x8 battery to get to the No Bonus level. But the most important change regarded END and the Elemental Control (which, incidentally, was just listed with the other Powers in 1e, along with Multipower; it was only with 2e that we got a separate section for them -- with, strangely, Reduced END lumped in with EC and Multipower. Another sign of how significant the problems around END were with 1e). But specifically for Enemies, as it says in the intro to the Revised edition, "The reason they were changed was to make them legal under the new rules, and to reflect the rules changes that will occur in the new, revised CHAMPIONS. The only major power change concerns the END reduction advantage when applied to the Elemental Control power. The new way to figure reduced END (which will appear in the revised CHAMPIONS) is to add the cost of any extra slots and/or boosted slots to the base cost of the elemental before you figure the cost of the reduced END cost advantage." An example is Mind Slayer. In both editions, the characteristics and their costs are the same, but her EC had to change. Here are her Powers from the original Enemies book: Cost Powers 60 Elemental Control (Mind Powers) 1 Ego Attack 6D6 2 Mind Scan 6D6 3 Telepathy 6D6 12 4 Telekinesis STR 30, 15 or less 12 5 Telekinetic Shield (Force Field), affects desolid objects, Invisible power, effect on a 14 or less, +10 PD +12 ED 12 6 Flight 15" 10 Ego DEfense -14 45 Reduced END cost Elemental (1 END per phase) ==== 151 = Powers Cost And here she is in the Revised edition: Cost Powers EC - Mind Powers 75 1 6D6 Ego Attack at 1/2 END 22 2 STR 30 TK at 1/4 END 14 3 +10 PD, +10 ED Force Field, Invisible Power Effects (Act 14 or less) at 1/4 END 22 4 6D6 Telepathy at 1/4 END 22 5 6D6 Mind Scan at 1/4 END 22 6 15" Flight at 0 END 10 14 pts. Ego Defense === 187 = Power Cost That 36 point cost difference was a big point of the change from 1e to 2e. You went from being able to apply Reduced END Cost to the entire EC by paying for it just for the point reserve and having it apply to all the Powers under it (which could then individually have further applications of Reduced END Cost). But you'll also note that they went from paying for the power reserve for the EC up front (60 points in this case), then being allowed to put three powers in the reserve at 1/2 that number of points for free, with additional slots only costing 1/5 the points in the reserve. In toto, the EC was way, way too much of a bargain in the original edition. Combine the extra-slot cost with the further-reduced-END rules, and you could get some amazing deals.

I was so shocked and saddened when I got today's issue of AbChaos, announcing Greg's death. He was a true hero of the industry, and did more than nearly anyone else to advance the hobby. He'll be missed, but his legacy will live on. Here's a nice note about Greg Stafford by John Wick: http://johnwickpresents.com/games/the-grey-crane/

You're welcome! If Hyper-Man were still with us, I'll bet he could answer that off the top of his head. As for me, it'll take a bit of reading to jog my memory. I'll try to make some time this weekend.

It's so sad how needy Trump is.

The characters were just revised based on the Champions 2nd Edition rule changes. (Some exploits were possible in the 1st Edition rules, but those were fixed in Champions 2e.)

Yeah, I've never been a fan of fumbles outside of appropriate games like Paranoia. Didn't do it, could do it at a cost/did it at a cost, did it, did it well -- those are the most I need for most campaign types.

I read an opinion piece on that, too. My reaction was that hope it's right, but I fear it's just more wishful thinking.

Oh, I don't expect that kind of thing either. But I do expect that suits will continue to be brought against every effort at gun control, every aspect of abortion, every aspect of gay rights, every bit of business regulation, Obamacare, and so on. And I expect the decisions on those cases to be far to the right of where they would have been under Reihnquist's court, let alone the liberal courts of the 60s and 70s. And I expect that if liberals do regain control over the other branches of government at any point in the next two decades, any legislation they pass that in any way negatively affects big business or the wealthy (same thing, really) will be challenged in court, and that this court will find against it.

There are enough votes on the Supreme Court now to overturn anything Democrats do at the State or Federal level, regardless of how elections turn out. That balance of power on the Court is unlikely to change for a generation. It's game over.

Regardless of system, when I'm using critical hits, my default is to say they automatically do max damage. If it's a system that has active defence, I tend not to allow it against critical hits. But I don't really use them with HERO System. Off the cuff, I'd go with the GURPS default of a roll of 3 or 4 being a critical success.

The Trump presidency in a nutshell.

Well, yeah. There's no reason to go nuts.

And, conversely, if you do use your held action earlier in the Segment than your next Phase begins (via "I wait until he...", for example), then your normal Phase for that Segment disappears as if it never existed. That's the cost of acting earlier in the Segment than your DEX allows. (Not to mention, you're going to need to do better than the other guy at a DEX roll if you want to preempt him at his own DEX with something other than a defensive action.) That's how I run it, anyway.