thewomble

I'm very happy that more titles are available by POD. Are there plans to add the two volumes of 6e? That's what I'd particularly like to get my hands on. So what's next?

What would you like to see, that would be a suitable project for a third party rather than an official Hero release? (i.e. a repackaging of the core rules or APGIII probably wouldn't be a good fit.) Do you want new settings? Adventures? Something else entirely?

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). Rather grubby film, but entertaining nonetheless.

Re: MYTHIC HERO Kickstarter I've got to say, regardless of what is the appropriate level of compensation for such a project in an ideal world, that the target for this Kickstarter is very ambitious compared to similar projects in today's market place. SL's talents may make him worthy of being put on a substantial salary to write the good stuff, but unfortunately that might not be realistic. Fingers crossed...

I am aware of the broad differences between 5th and 6th. This isn't a request to list them in the thread. What I'm wondering is if there is an official, semi-official or at least comprehensive list of all the differences somewhere around.

Re: New Hero System Players And Game Masters Good to see a younger player around here. Heck, I'm not ancient in my 30s, but I've been playing Hero since the 1980s so that puts me in the older majority. Just wondering, how did you get into Hero system?

Re: New Hero System Players And Game Masters Firstly, invite your non-gaming friends to take part in a game. Every year you can introduce several people to the hobby and to our favourite game. If we all did this, Hero would be in great shape. Secondly, run an event at a con. Thirdly, keep buying Hero products, support Kickstarters etc so that the game is still in print and getting support for decades to come. Fourthly, spread the word online by participating in forums, blogging, mentioning Hero on Facebook or whatever. But don't kid yourself, doing the first one I mentioned will be way more effective at helping the game.

Re: New Hero System Players And Game Masters They are??? Too bad RPGs definitely fall into the "ick, otaku" category for the more fashionable young women...

Yes, I know it can stop a bullet. I've never actually beheld a copy of 5e, but I have 6e and I find that while the pages are good thick stock, the covers actually crumple and ding easily. Are the covers of 5e made to the same specifications as 6e? Sorry, I'm borderline OCD about books and this is an important purchase factor!

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I've been re-reading a bit of Jack Vance recently - a couple of obscure early novellas, namely the Houses of Iszm and Son of the Tree. Good nostalgic fun and inventive stories in their own right.

In this article, Fred Hicks describes the initiative system in the new MHR game. Essentially, each successive player nominates who goes next. The article goes into some of the nuances and it sounds like a neat approach to me. Would you use it in Champions?

Re: Hero System Sixth Edition Concise Here's another idea: make a Hero Lite series, with a Fantasy, Pulp, SF and Champions book. Each book consists of the BR with a few tweaks for each genre (e.g. include the Summoning power for the fantasy version) plus 60 pages of genre-specific rules taken from the full genre book. All you need to play each genre in one book. The Champions one would be like having the Big Blue Book again, but smaller and with the superior 6e rules. Sure you could just publish the genre rules and ask people to use it with the BR, but lots of folks like to have a single complete book. And with POD/PDF, there's no need to make a big print run, so it's feasible to make these kind of tailored products.

Re: Hero System 5E vs HS 5E revised The Basic Rules may be enough for your needs. If not, 6e Vol 1 is still available from the Hero Store as a damaged item for a bargain price (and vol 2 is widely available). So it's not difficult or expensive to get into 6e.

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy Good idea. I'd like to see a pdf supplement like that to quickly create Fantasy Hero characters. There was the 5e book. FH has about 14 magic system examples. With that and the Grimoire, there's plenty of worked examples to get your motor running.

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy I struggled for a long time trying to implement my fantasy setting in various games - mainly Rolemaster and BRP variants. All of a sudden, with Hero I've found it just works, and the system doesn't impose itself on the setting. The overhead of writing up the magic systems is actually less than trying to tweak magic in other games, and gives better results.

Re: Hitting 'Til It Hurts I read the title as "hitting it 'til it hurts" Sorry, maybe it's just me....

Re: Your "2012" Pet Gaming Projects I want to fully write up my Fantasy Hero setting and get a campaign going. In the back of my mind is a Star Hero game set in Jack Vance's Gaean Reach, focused on investigation.

Re: Possible HERO System Supplement Kickstarters From Steve -- What Interests You? Steve, what are your thoughts on a Kickstarter for a "6e Concise Rulebook" as discussed on this board? Since 6e1 is OOP, and the new book would only be an editing rather than new writing job (although a substantial one) I feel it should be a high priority.

Re: Hero System Sixth Edition Concise Problem is that it's hard to put the genie back in the bottle. If you put out a new rulebook leaving out some of the current 6e content, and say that this is Hero 6e then people are just going to refer back to their old books anyway. Hence my suggestion of simply reformatting the 2 volume core into 2 volumes, the first of which is the full rules required to play, and the second of which is for the hardcore. In reality, that second book could be produced as a lower priced B&W softcover and delayed somewhat. Let the BR fade away and leave the APGs be, I don't think they are a problem as they are clearly optional.

Re: Hero System Sixth Edition Concise

Re: Hero System Sixth Edition Concise One suggestion is to have two clear levels of information on each page: firstly the basic information, then additional information in a clearly differentiated graphic format. A sidebar is one traditional way of doing this, and you could still have them, but you could insert "advanced information" in a 3D raised box or something like that. This would make it easy to ignore all of the advanced info unless necessary. I would imagine having 10-20% of page text in these "ignore until needed" boxes. This would definitely help with a text like the current 6e core, and could still be valid for a concise rulebook. As far as criteria for selecting which text fall into which category, I'm not qualified to comment at this point...

Re: Hero System Sixth Edition Concise It's possible that it could be as low as 250 pages, I can't really say for sure. The important thing is that it be a complete game, with engaging presentation. Initially, put out one book. Then as resources allow, add in the Companion book so that players who bought the new Core only need to buy one more book rather than both 6e1 and 6e2 to get the fuller game. Something needs to be done now - already you can't buy 6e1.

Re: Starting a Hero System Podcast .... who is interested? I wish you well! Recently I was searching for Hero podcasts, and came up with a couple of interviews with Steve Long, which was cool, but nothing by way of regular fan podcasts. So consider me subscribed.

Re: Hero System Sixth Edition Concise I completely agree with the ideas in this thread. *introduce quickstarts, free in pdf form; *have one volume of <400 pages as the Core Rules, presented like 6e FH or Champions (i.e. with lighter paper than the current core, and engaging cover art). Even better, have it available as both a color hardcover (retail ~$45) and a B&W softcover (retail ~$30). *supplement the Core with a Companion volume adding in the edge cases and fuller explanations that have been left out of the new Core. *de-emphasise or phase out the Basic Rules Hero Games has limited resources. I think they should prioritize production of the Quickstarts, and consider crowdsourcing them i.e. asking for volunteers. Also, I think they should make Narf's 2 page primer into an official product as a free download and promote it. 6e1 is out of print. Now is a great time to make these changes and start working on the new Core Rules. I'd certainly contribute to a Kickstarter. Lastly, I think Hero should emphasize that this is in no way a 7e or even a 6.5e. The new core would have corrected errata, but that's all. No need to even think about a new edition until around 2020 :-)

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter The Kickstarter page states for $50 and $80 pledge levels "for shipping to Canada or Mexico add $30; for shipping to Europe add $50". These shipping costs seem very high. Hero Games can usually ship a book to me in Japan for $10.