Jason S.Walters
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Posts posted by Jason S.Walters
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They're both available now. And you're welcome! All part of my "spring house cleaning!" Jason
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It's not so much that we're "supporting" 5th Edition (or any previous edition for that matter). We just thought there were fans who might like to have physical copies of this and several other 5th Edition books.
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If you never had a chance to pick up physical copy of the Champions Universe 6th Edition, it is now available from RPGNow and DriveThruRPG in black-and-white paperback format for the reduced price of $30.00.
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If you never had a chance to pick up physical copy of the Hero System Fifth Edition Revised back-in-the-day, it is now available from RPGNow and DriveThruRPG in black-and-white paperback format for the reduced price of $40.00.
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If you never had a chance to pick up a physical copy of HERO System 6th Edition: Combat and Adventuring it is now available from RPGNow and DriveThruRPG in black-and-white paperback format for the reduced price of $30.00.
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If you never had a chance to pick up a physical copy of HERO System 6th Edition: Character Creation it is now available from RPGNow and DriveThruRPG in black-and-white paperback format for the reduced price of $40.00.
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Champions Powers will soon be out of print, and thus has been made available via print on demand from One Book Shelf (DriveThroughRPG, RPGNow, and their related websites).
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The 2016 ENnie Awards are being voted on right now, and High Rock Press's Larger Than Life by veteran Hero author Michael Surbrook is up for Best Monster/Adversary. While it's the Savage Worlds version of the book that's being voted on, it was written as a Hero System product, and really represents all three versions of the work (Hero System, Savage Worlds, and Mutants & Masterminds). So please go VOTE for Larger Than Life, and help support Michael's work!
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Women are, of course much weaker than men. While this is common knowledge, it might surprise you just how much weaker women are than men. Women would have a slightly higher dexterity, a slightly lower speed, and maybe some other things I haven't even thought of.
Have you met my wife? Seriously. She's freaky strong.
While Multi-form strikes me as a perfectly acceptable way to create a character that can change genders, much of your above statement strikes me inaccurate. Yes, on average, women are less physically powerful than men. However, the statistical outliers (very strong women vs. very weak men) seem to average that out a bit. And I live out here in ranching and farming country, where the women are often very physically strong and capable of doing a "man's work" when needed. Which is often.
And I question your assertions about dexterity and speed. I'm pretty quick and nimble for an old guy, but somehow I don't see beating Serena Williams at... well, pretty much anything.
Jason
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This Friday I'm going to catch a plane from Reno to Ft. Worth, rent a car, and drive to the small city of Denton. Why do you ask? Because that's where the archives of Aaron Allston's work are stored. With the help of his mother Rose, I'm going to go through those files, locate all of the material related to his decades long Strike Force campaign (including the now-famous bluebooks), copy them, and send them where they need to go so that a new Strike Force book (or possibly books) can be created.
Before his untimely passing, Aaron and I had been talking about producing a new Strike Force book for Hero Games. But we were both involved with other projects, had a lot to do, and it didn't seem like there was any particular hurry to get the project done. However, now that he's gone, his family and I believe it's important that his part of his legacy be preserved by issuing a new and expanded version of this seminal work of RPG game design. I hope you all will agree and support this project when it goes live on Kickstarter sometime later this year.
The new version of Strike Force won't formally be a Hero Games product. Rather, it's going to be a joint project between Blackywrm Games and Evil Beagle Games, with designer Ross Watson spearheading the editing and design of the book, and myself overseeing the development and production. (Or so Ross and I hope, as neither of us knows what I'll find down in the Lone Star State.) Using Blackwyrm's Larger Than Life: Tall Tale Adventures Kickstarter project as a model, we plan on producing versions for the Hero System, Savage Worlds, and Mutants & Masterminds respectively.
So wish me luck as I brave the tornadoes. Hopefully I'll come back with something that does justice to a talented author and game designer who was also our friend. -
Hi everyone! Hero Games fan Roger Gremillion has reported some problems with the Character Pack for Champions Powers. Specifically, the following:
Teleportation-CP.hdc is broken
Time.hdc is broken
Telekinesis-CP.hdc sems to be corrupted
I haven't had this problem reported to me before. Have any you encountered it? If so, do you have any suggestions? As far as I know the version of the CP he's downloaded is the same as the one I have in my files.
Jason, Hero Games
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It's been well over a year sinceThe Monster Hunter International Employee Handbook was released, so we're now making the three supplements backers received available to the general public (see the front page):
Adventures In Monster Hunting features six scenarios for the MHI RPG. Each of them is relatively simple and straightforward, perfect for new GMs and players to cut their teeth on but still plenty of fun for experienced GMs and players. They are:
>The New Kids In Town, in which the PCs go into the field for the first time and find themselves taking on a nest of wererats
>Gimme That Old One Religion, which pits the PCs against a cult that worships the Old Ones and is secretly controlled by a powerful necromancer named Vincent Scarlatti;
>Bewitched, Bothered, And Bewildered, in which Scarlatti lures the PCs into a trap to try to get rid of them, while simultaneously attacking a local MCB facility to “recruit” monsters held captive there;
>The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, which puts the PCs in the middle of an occult war between Scarlatti and Lucinda Hood;
>Soul Man, in which a grieving daughter asks the PCs to rescue her father’s soul from an oni, but who in truth has far more sinister motivations; and
>Journey Of The Sorcerer, in which Vincent Scarlatti uses a powerful new body to try to complete a major summoning ritual before the PCs can stop him.
A Mess of Monsters containstwenty-nine additional monsters for Monster Hunter International.
Hell's Horde containsthirty-three pages of inspired madness from Monster Hunter fans and crowdfunding contributors.
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Hero Games is proud to present a supplement for Pulp Hero, Champions, and Dark Champions by Blackwyrm Publishing that is... Larger Than Life!
Heroes, villains, legends … the folklore of America features all of this and more. In this volume you can find pirates and soldiers, lumberjacks and steel drivers, mountain men and lawmen, cowboys, Indians, inventors, and eccentrics. All of whom are just waiting to be included in your campaign! And don’t let the time period fool you, just because these characters existed in the 18th and 19th Centuries, doesn’t mean you can’t use them in your Pulp Hero, Champions, Dark Champions, or even Star Hero campaigns! After all, these characters are Larger Than Life!
Larger Than Life features 20 archetypes, ranging from Blackbeard the Pirate to the man who invented the 20th Century: Nikola Tesla. In addition, there are a total of 24 full character sheets, each with a detailed history and description of the character in question. But that’s not all! You also get over 120 biographies of other people related to each archetype, as well as famous ocean-going ships, famous outlaw gangs, Paul Bunyan’s entire logging gang, and other historical trivia. Each archetype also comes with at least one template, allowing you to build your own version of that archetype. So what are you waiting for? Dive in and start discovering those tidbits of American history you never new existed. But watch your step, because after all, these characters are… Larger Than Life!
Larger Than Life! is a 240 page, black-and-white paperback written by veteran Hero Games author Michael Surbrook. -
Every Fantasy Hero campaign needs magical treasures for adventurers to find. This new series from G Elkins Productions contains information on just such treasures.
Cloaks & Robes: Every adventurer wants to have that special garment to help them in their adventures. Here you will find over 30 items to add to your Fantasy Hero campaign. From the famous Cloak of Invisibility or the Cloak of Winter to the wizards’s favorite Robe of Spell Protection.
The ZIP file includes the PDF and Hero Designer files.
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Thank you. We hope this will be the case.
In any case, I think the cover works; its interesting to look at, gives a fantasy feel, has the requisite "strong woman" figure in it, and should be well received.
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Bingo.
Look at the dragon's hands. It looks like he's trying to reason with them or barter. The hand placement combined with the facial expression says "come on guys, we can work something out" to me.
Also, I second the liking having a fully clothed female on a fantasy cover. -
A few thoughts from the management. Some of you will like them, some of you will not. But they're meant to explain things a bit, not offend anyone or be confrontational. They're just the facts on the ground as I know them to be.
1) Champions Complete *replaces* Champions: The SuperRoleplaying Game, 6E1, and 6E2 - and for a fraction of the cost. It's sold reasonably well too. Which matters.
2) The book Champions: The SuperRoleplaying Game has been out of print for years now, and will never come back into print. Nor will the 6E1 or 6e2 (at least in their pre-existing form). If someone, somehow has found one on a game store shelf and gotten confused, then.... [helpless Gaelic shrug]. What can I say?
3) The whole core book/genre book/setting book/equipment book model of selling roleplaying game books worked okay in the 80s, 90s, and maybe the early part of this century. But as far as I can tell it doesn't work now. It's a big money looser, and those companies who are doing it are either taking a hit, or are Paizo Publishing. OTOH books with stand alone rules in them seem to be what the majority of roleplaying game book consumers - especially new ones - want. So that's what we're going to do with Hero right now.
For those of you who disagree... well, there's something like 100+ 5th and 6th Edition books out there based on the previous model. It's not like releasing Champions Complete or Fantasy Hero Complete magically invalidates them. So collect away! Happy to sell you some. Happy to have people playing whatever version of the Hero System they like. Have fun!
4) "If the buyer feels misled, he's probably not coming back to buy more products." Since we were printing books that nobody was buying previous to releasing Champions Complete and Monster Hunter International - both of which have been financially successful, I might add - they weren't coming back to buy more products anyhow. And nobody is being misled when you explicitly tell them they are buying a stand-alone game.
5) I set two simple goals for myself when I found myself uncomfortably seated upon the Iron Throne of Hero Games. One, I would never help create a product that lost money. So far, so good. Two, I would encourage new people to play the Hero system. The stand-alone books are a big part of that. As far as I can tell: also so far, so good.
6) "Maybe we're moving back to the "separate games using the Hero Engine" model." We are. Because consumers seem to want it, and because it exposes new people to the system who might otherwise never try it. With that said, I'm thinking about next year's book or books being specific supplements for Champions Complete. Because they're projects I believe will self-fund on Kickstarter, that most of you will like, and that will sell enough after the fact to at least "do no harm."
7) "With Fantasy Hero Complete, we will now have three versions of the rules, with three different authors." If you include the 5th Edition Lucha Libre Hero and the upcoming Hero-derived Narosia: Sea of Tears, you could say seven including Darren Watts, Shane Harsh, and myself. And frankly... so what? Seeing the Hero System change and grow through the eyes of various fans and authors over the years is a good and healthy thing. That's why we've made our third party license so incredibly easy to use. Hero Games isn't just some stuff on my computer, a bank account, and a 1000-square-foot warehouse filled with books. It's a widespread idea that belongs most of all to you fans.
Thus I have spoken, and shall now return to my mountain of digital paperwork.
Jason Walters, CEO Hero Games
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Sam has finished with the cover artwork for Fantasy Hero Complete even as Michael continues working on the manuscript. Have a look!
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Hero Games is proud to present a supplement for Champions by Dean Shomshak.
There's A Thin Line Between Genius And EVIL
Sky-Q is such a good "smart drug," it's a shame it's illegal. Users gain an hour of better memory and concentration -- followed by fatigue, irritability, and other unpleasant side effects. A few steady users gain much more: They master exotic sciences and invent radical new technologies. On the other hand, they develop bizarre, megalomaniac obsessions and become supervillains! Some of them are loopy "theme gadget" criminals. Others are rather less funny.
Here's what you get in SHARED ORIGINS: SKY-Q:
* Background and game mechanics for Sky-Q, the smart drug that works too well.
* Four sample villains who gained their powers from Sky-Q, from the farcical Mushroom Master to the monstrous Izverg. Each character comes with a complete character sheet, background, story seeds, and full-color illustration.
* One sample hero, ready to play or use as an NPC.
* A brief discussion of "Origin Substances" as reusable explanations for characters gaining super-powers, with three additional examples of this classic origin story.
Uses HERO System 6th Edition or CHAMPIONS Complete.
THE SHARED ORIGINS SERIES
This series of mini-supplements for CHAMPIONS provides "Origin Stories" that players and GMs can use for many different characters. Coming up with character origins is work; reusable origin gimmicks help you spend more time on character backgrounds and motivations and less time explaining why they have super-powers in the first place. (Shared origins can also tie characters together and create story hooks.) Each supplement supplies background information and game mechanics for one shared origin story, a ready-to-play sample hero, and a selection of sample villains. Supplements stand alone to make it easier to plug the sample characters and origin story into your own superhero setting.
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There is a distinct possibility that Hero Games will be releasing a non-Champions Universe superhero product next year. I'm not prepared at this point to give any details, however, and it's not because working with Cryptic Studious has been in any way difficult or unpleasant. Far from it. It's just that there's a possibility of doing a particular superhero setting book that we would like to do, would most likely be popular enough on Kickstarter to make it economically viable, and I believe we can get permission to do it.
I'll tell you all more as I know more.
Jason Walters, Hero Games CEO
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Hero Games is proud to present a new supplement for Fantasy Hero by Kestrel Arts: The Fantasy Codex! Empower your Wizard! Almost a thousand new spells for your fantasy game, detailed and organized for use by GMs and Players alike. Designed for Fantasy Hero by Kestrel Arts, this collection of magic may be adapted for any fantasy setting.
Unlock spells like Grimstaff’s Grand Enhancement, Cinder Spray, Tornado, and Call Aether Spite! Learn magical spells from five different orders and seventeen magical schools! Summon not just elementals but a keep or siege weapons! Cast spells to baffle and confound your enemies! The Fantasy Codex is packed with unique and creative magic for your spell caster to learn and use... and for your GM to use against you.
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Hero Games is proud to present a supplement for Fantasy Hero by G Elkins Hero System Products. The Lost Grimoire houses information on the following types of new magic; Assassins Magic, Coven Magic, Demonic Magic, Divine Magic, Fire Magic and Shadow Magic. Six forms of magic, over 100 spells in all!
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Hero Games is proud to present the first adventure for Fantasy Hero by Kestrel Arts: The Lost Castle! Long ago a mad king built a fantastic complex to survive in case of disaster beneath his castle. Eventually the king's madness caused the once-rich kingdom to falter and in time it simply faded away, yet another of the lost human kingdoms long ago when the elves ruled. When adventurers stumble upon the ruins, there's much more than meets the eye.
The Lost Castle is a Fantasy Hero adventure for 4-8 characters no more than 1000 points total, combined.
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SUPER SORCERY GOES GALACTIC
Earth is not the only world with mystics and magic. Spells of the Devachan reveals a wider cosmos of spirits and sorcery:
• More than 30 spells of thaumaturgy, the light-show magic used by comic-book super-mages. Most are new. A few spells from past HERO System publications are revised for 6th Edition.
• A new setting and background for thaumaturgy. Mystics of many worlds join the occult society called the Devachan, ready to become allies and mentors for human super-mages.
• A new treatment of astral projection and the Astral Plane, the mystic dimension that connects all worlds and realms of existence — now revised for 6th Edition and expanded to include interstellar travel.
• Plus glimpses into the spirit realms of several alien species, with wonders and perils of their own.
Welcome to the Sorcerer’s Galaxy — because one Mystic World isn’t enough.
Dark Champions (5th Edition)
in Print On Demand
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If you never had a chance to pick up physical copy of Dark Champions (5th Edition) back-in-the-day, it is now available from RPGNow in black-and-white paperback format for $31.99.