Chris Goodwin

I don't think lowering the barrier to entry is the same as making it palatable to every possible roleplayer.  
 
It's intimidating.  The college textbook-sized tomes especially, but even the Complete books are somewhat difficult to parse, and for all they're "complete" they might just not quite be.  
 
We can have easier to tackle "starter sets" without losing the heart of the HERO System.

It took me long enough to find this, and I overlooked it more than once.  
 

 
Champions III, p 24.  
 
Edit to add:  While it might have thrown additional gasoline on the Great Linked Debate fire back in the day, it also assumes that the Powers are designed to go off together.  Essentially, what Hero Designer refers to as a "compound Power".  X, plus Y, plus Z. 
 

I have this one rulebook.  I can play a superhero game.  Using the same ruleset, I can play a fantasy game, or a science fiction game, or an old west game, and while I may want to choose different toggle options when putting the game together, I can look at the characters and know exactly what they can do.  I don't have to try to guess whether a special ability is going to balance with others, or whether it's going to break my game, and 99% of the time my assessment will be correct.  I can do all of that without having to learn a new ruleset, or even open a new sourcebook.  

For the low price of just two hundred 20 ounce lattes, or approximately 200 milliliters of printer ink, you too can help a neglected sword find a home...

Be glad to, but I don't know if it helps; I have to preface this, you see:
 
Way back before Measured Time, in the First Age, we needed vehicles.  Alas, no Great Sage had ever come to us to our humble village to speak the Official Words of how one might acquire a vehicle.... 
 
So we did what seemed pretty obvious to us, way back then.  Truth be told, it seemed so simple and so elegant that we assumed this was probably all along the intention of the Great Council of Wizards Clerics and Mathemagicians who had gone Before and laid out the original plans of the Righteous Text....
 
Short version is that we built vehicles on character sheets.  We made some assumptions that, once there were official rules, proved "correct" - - inanimate objects had no INT or EGO; AI-driven vehicles could have both, and computers could have INT; vehicles could have SPD higher or lower than the driver, and were operated at the lower of the two, etc, etc... 
 
We made some assumptions that were "wrong" by the official rules-- you don't use Growth to make a larger vehicle; you don't use Shrinking: only to reduce mass" to lighten a vehicle that calculated out way heavier than its real-world counterpart--
 
At any rate, we used (and still do, because the official rules are just stupid when it's possible to make a _character_ who _is_ or _turns into_  a car on a character sheet with character rules, but then we were introduced to a whole new set of "special circumstance" rules to do the same damned thing?  Nah; i'm good. I mean, is the existing system "universal" or is it "universal except for X?" 
 
At any rate, that is pretty much how we built all vehicles and all large equipment back then, and how I did it a few weeks ago, because we never adopted any version of the newer vehicle rules. 
 
Shortest version yet:  I'd build your mech on a character sheet. 
 
We never adopted multiform, either, as we were (and still are) supremely happy with "only in X identity," where identity means any altered shape or function significantly different from the primary form.
. The upshot of this is all the arguments we never even knew existed about Yield Signs, Stop Signs, and "balance" or "experience point" issues because of the divide-by-5 costing nuttiness. 
 
So a transforming mech, at our table, would be written up on a regular character sheet with _alk_ of its abilities, each one tagged as 1, 2, or B (including whatever characteristics you didn't buy down to zero: a process we jokingly refer to as "figuring the factory rebate."
) 
 
Those available in both forms (marked did not take the "Only in X form" Limitation, while the others were, of course, eligible for it. 
 
 
Funny aside:
 
Once Increased Knockback" was understood, we had several crafty players compare the KB modifiers of Shrinking and Growth and start "reducing mass" for their vehicles via custom physical limitations for their vehicles:  increased knock back due to reduced mass.   
 
 
Sometimes, we'd let it slide.  ;). Mainly because it was skin to saying "Hey, GM: I want my car to get battered a _lot_...!" 

@zorak asked this in Rules Questions, and seemed a little shy about starting a topic over here.  I thought it deserved some discussion, so...
 
 
Zorak, the way most folks would probably do it is using a Vehicle to represent the mech, with Extra Limbs for the arms if it has them.  A Transformer or Veritech Fighter type could have a Multiform.  
 
I also happen to favor the third edition standalone game Robot Warriors though it's a bit behind the times as far as modern HERO System rules are concerned.  RW has its own separate build system for mechs, similar to but not quite the same as the current edition's vehicle rules.  You might check it out.  Also, definitely take a look at Star Hero and The Ultimate Vehicle (for 5th edition, but it's compatible with 6th with a little bit of reworking).  
 
Anyone else want to chime in?

I don't think I expressed myself cleanly in my post.  Let me say like this: what's the competitive differentiator for HERO?
 
If you had one chance to show people why this system is the best (I know, I'm biased ) then how would you do it?  You can make a Brick or an Energy Blaster in M&M and any number of other superhero games.  If I can do that in those other systems why would I bother looking at HERO?  What's the hook for a new player to play Champions vs M&M?
 
A friend of mine gave me some good advice about a project I was working on; show, don't tell.
 
Again, I'm not suggesting making mind melting exercises in creative accounting... it's about showing them enough of the system that it actually grabs their attention.  It's a very delicate and challenging proposition but I think it's achievable.

Thanks. I'll give both of those a look. If I can find the robot warriors book in one form or another, I'll check that out too. Appreciate the info 

For the low price of just two hundred 20 ounce lattes, or approximately 200 milliliters of printer ink, you too can help a neglected sword find a home...

I remember, my first few characters were pretty lightweight as far as modifiers went.  
 
Get people rolling dice, rolling against 11+OCV whichever way you compare it, counting BODY and STUN and so on.  Once they've got a few games under their belt, and have the context for all of this stuff, then let them start modifying their characters or making their own at their own pace.

Exactly! Get 'em in the door and interested, show them a good time, and they'll do the rest.

I remember, my first few characters were pretty lightweight as far as modifiers went.  
 
Get people rolling dice, rolling against 11+OCV whichever way you compare it, counting BODY and STUN and so on.  Once they've got a few games under their belt, and have the context for all of this stuff, then let them start modifying their characters or making their own at their own pace.

Well, if people want campaign recaps, I realized that I offered a choice of two adventures way back when. I posted the example of an adventure that ran off the rails and became a farce; here's one that went as planned.
 
This came from the second Keystone Konjurors campaign, which I ran when updating The Ultimate Super-Mage to 5th edition as The Ultimate Mystic and The Mystic World. The PC lifeup changed, in that the Mad Mage Ian Malcolm regained is sanity as Talbot Fulten, Archimago's son who went mad for a while after Learning Too Much in his search for the fundamental principles of magic and the Multiverse. Black Fang is present as an NPC ally: At the end of the first campaign, the PCs found a way to merge the human and werewolf personalities. He and Jezeray are married.
-------------
NEW ADVENTURES OF THE KEYSTONE KONJURORS — Nov. 00
THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE
 
Artifex returns to Wetchley House from one of his missions and is surprised to encounter Sara-Maria, the Konjurors’ new Salvadoran maid. Apostle explains the situation; Sara-Maria collects her weekly pay and goes home… and mere seconds after she leaves the house, the two mages hear her scream!
 
They can’t teleport to her (Wetchley House’s anti-teleport wards work both ways). They reach the door just in time to see Sagana Liefeld (the Sylvestri woman with the black metal body who serves the demon lord Mulciber, last seen in the first half of “Barbie World”) encase Sara-Maria in a shell of magic metal. Apostle and Artifex briefly fight Sagana, trying to protect Sara-Maria, but Sagana Gates away to hell with the captured housekeeper. Before she goes, however, she drops an envelope on the sidewalk.
 
The envelope holds photos of several people, all held prisoner by Sagana and Mulciber: Artifex’s father Mr. Doyle, Andrew’s father Judge Talmadge, Jezeray’s old mentor Madame Zora, and Zeta Krafft (the artist whom the Konjurors saved from a pact with Mulciber way back when). As Apostle expects, Sagana soon phones the Konjurors to say that Mulciber demands their surrender. If they don’t give themselves up at the doorway to his subterranean halls in ten minutes, he will kill the hostages and torment their captive souls for eternity.
The heroes decide that this time, they are really and truly outmaneuvered. They Gate to Mulciber’s demesne in the Netherworld, and surrender to the Avarice Demons on guard. They’re stripped, gagged, bound into wheeled racks like Hannibal Lector and blindfolded, then wheeled to Mulciber’s audience chamber.
 
Mulciber gloats a bit in the best sadistic-megalomaniac fashion, then says that the heroes can buy the lives and freedom of themselves and the hostages if they perform one task for him, with their souls forfeit if they fail or displease Mulciber in the slightest particular. Since it’s the only way to save the hostages, the PCs all agree. Mulciber frees them from the racks and asks them to grovel a bit. Then he makes them sign a soul-contract — including Zontar. Only then does he say what he wants them to do.
 
Mulciber wants them to help him defect to Babylon. He believes that the Descending Hierarchy doesn’t give him the respect he deserves. He finds the growing power and influence of his arch-rival Belphegor, a demonic industrialist, especially galling. Instead of trying to destroy Belphegor in some protracted vendetta, though, Mulciber decides that living well in Babylon — and revealing all the secrets about his fellow demon lords that he’s collected for thousands of years — is a more satisfying and immediate revenge.
 
Artifex, for the first time in his life, acknowledges that he is in the presence of a sneakier bastard than himself.
 
Defection from Hell is no easy thing, though. Mulciber wants to take his whole volcanic demesne with him — or as much of it as possible, anyway. He believes that by combining their assorted Gating spells, the Konjurors can move an immensely large mass — perhaps the entire volcano. He wants Talbot to work out the details of this unprecedented magic. He also needs an immigration permit from the Babylon bureaucracy, and a place for Mount Mulciber to appear. (They receive an enchanted pennon to mark the mountain’s destination.) Mulciber expects his superiors and rivals in the Descending Hierarchy to discover his plan within an hour or two at most, so he gives them one hour to arrange everything in Babylon.
 
The PCs Gate to Babylon. Sagana accompanies them as Mulciber’s monitor, and to assist them any way she can. The group splits up: Artifex and Apostle, who have the best Presence and related abilities, set out for the Imperial Palace to try getting a permit from the Emperor, while Talbot, Jezeray and Sagana search for a location where they can plunk down a mountain without crushing thousands of people. Artifex suggests Central Park (it exists in Babylon), while Jezeray decides to search for an abandoned district — one that echoes a city now forgotten.
 
Jezeray asks a cabby to take her to the Shamballan district, and learns that there isn’t one; nor an Aghartan district. Thos cities died long before Babylon’s birth. Moving forward in history, she tries for a Sumerian district, and learns that Babylon does indeed have an Old Mesopotamian quarter. It’s nothing more than a derelict walled plaza with a ziggurat at the other end. She investigates astrally, and finds that the ziggurat’s guardian statues remain active and able to sense her. She decides that Old Mesopotamia might have some occupants, and in any case it’s too small.
 
Rendezvousing with Talbot and Sagana at Central Park, Jezeray reports her failure. They’re stuck with Central Park.
 
Meanwhile, Apostle and Artifex get Ye Olde Bureaucratic Runaround at the emperor’s palace. After a half-hour of filling out forms and running from window to window, Apostle decides to bluff. Being the Guardian of Light should count for something, dammit! Artifex casts his “Golden Opportunity” spell on Apostle; the spell is a minor Social Transform that grants people lucky breaks, though the person must work for themselves to take advantage of them. The spell and a bit of bluster gets Apostle into the diplomatic area, munching caviar and champagne while the diplomats try to locate the Emperor.
 
While Apostle tries to get a permit by hook, Artifex tries to get a permit by crook. He goes to the Casablanca District and Rick’s Cafe’ American. Of *course* the characters from one of the most famous movies of all time have echoed into Babylon! A few bucks in the piano player’s jar nets Artifex an interview with Rick. In return for the promise of a favor, Rick passes Artifex to the Vichy police chief. The chief asks for *two* future, unspecified favors in return for the requisite paperwork — one for the residency permit itself, and one for a rush job. “And they’ll be *big* favors,” he warns. “This is no small thing you seek to do.” At about the same time, Apostle learns that the staff has located the emperor in Casablanca.…
 
Apostle and Artifex meet the others at Central Park. The others create sirens, shout warnings to clear the park, etc. Sagana takes a more brutally pragmatic approach: She sets one of the park’s forests on fire, and marches into the blaze plant Mulciber’s pennon. Five minutes later, they’re ready to Gate back to Mulciber’s demesne.
 
They arrive on the slopes of Mount Mulciber in the middle of a siege. They can’t teleport of desolidify their way in past the mountain’s wards (if they could, then so could the attackers). They have a dangerously prolonged fight with squads of Greater Wrath Demons, Lesser Avarice Demons armed with infernal Uzis, and squad leader demon Sergulath. Eventually they get the Wrath Demons to fight each other and draw them away. Black Fang rips apart some of the Avarice Demons; Artifex sets the remaining Avarice Demons fighting each other while chasing a jeweled golden bauble he created. Sagana takes her cue from him and pitches golden apples at the other squads of avarice demons marching up the mountain, throwing them into turmoil. Sergulath takes a lot of beating, but they finally pin him long enough for Sagana to trap him in a metal shell. At last, they have the doorway free long enough for them to get inside.
 
Talbot has worked out the necessary spell-hacks: If Artifex converts his and Apostle’s Gate spells into spells to add mass and Area of effect to Artifex’s own Gate spell, they can move an area 1.6 km in radius from the Netherworld to Babylon — most of the mountain! Minions set up the necessary paraphernalia while Artifex reweaves Apostle’s and Talbot’s spells. Mulciber also brings out the hostages as proofs of his good faith, although they remain manacled.
 
As the first squads of attacking demons break into the mountain, Mulciber blows a horn signal for his minions to retreat and regroup. Artifex, Apostle and Talbot begin the Mega-Gate Spell.
 
But something’s wrong with the spell! It sucks the very life from the participants. In rules terms, at the start of each Turn it inflicted a Drain on a random physical characteristic — half the active Points of each character’s contribution. Talbot suffers a 3d6 Drain, Apostle a 4d6 Drain and Artifex, who is wielding a 240 Active Point final Effect, suffers a whopping 12d6 Drain! The first Turn’s Drain is against BODY, and it nearly kills Artifex then and there. It also turns Apostle out of his super-vitalized Hero ID. (Fortunately, this does not affect his spellcasting.) The second Turn’s Drain is against CON, rendering Artifex so feeble that *any* damage would stun him.
 
What’s worse, one squad of demonic attackers makes it into Mulciber’s throne room. Mulciber commands his Forge Maiden and Guardian Beast automata to protect the three Mega-Gate casters. Mulciber himself must concentrate upon keeping his demesne from falling apart in the dimensional vortex. It’s up to Zontar, Black Fang, Zagana and whatever of Mulciber’s Avarice Demons can make it to the throne room to repel the invaders.
 
The attacking demons are evenly divided between Lesser Avarice and Lesser Wrath demons, with the “named” demon Halpas, a bird-man with an ever-burning sword. Zontar leads off with the Scintillant Suns of Saravane, blinding all the demons except Halpas. The vicious little birdman shouts that if they don’t stop the spell and return Mulciber’s demesne, he will kill the hostages. He begins by stabbing Zeta Krafft. She begins burning from the inside out.
 
Zontar, Sagana and Black Fang manage to keep the gang of demons scattered and disorganized; about half of them are blind at any given time. Zontar finds the time to give Zeta one Restorations of the Ragnar, but she keeps burning. Halpas stabs two more hostages while Sagana, Black Fang and Zontar fight him and the demons. At the start of the third and final turn of the Mega-Gate passage, the casters suffer a STR Drain; they need the help of the forge maidens just to stand.
 
Just as Mount Mulciber appears in Babylon, Zeta Krafft dies. Mulciber thinks quickly: In the last second in which his demesne counts as part of the Netherworld, he plucks out her soul in the form of a golden statuette. A moment too late, Black Fang and Zagana nail Halpas and the other hostages stop burning. Zontar quickly heals them, but most of the hostages are nearly catatonic with terror.
 
In the Netherworld, meanwhile, the hollow shell of Mount Mulciber — everything outside the Mega-Gate radius — collapses in on itself, crushing hundreds of non-flying demons in its tunnels and on its slopes. (They aren’t really dead, of course, but they’ll be buried quite a while.)
 
The Konjurors have fulfilled Mulciber’s demand; true to their agreement, he burns their contract and releases their souls. But now what?
 
Mulciber points out that he promised that neither he nor his servants would harm any of the hostages if the Konjurors got him to Babylon; the contract said nothing about the actions of third parties. He could, in fact, keep Zeta Krafft’s soul — but he won’t. If he intends to be a Lord of Babylon instead of a Lord of Hell, he figures he should start paying a little more attention to the spirit of contracts as well as the letter, so… he offers to build Zeta a new body of metal, like Sagana’s.
 
Zontar lets Jezeray out again so she can talk to Zeta’s soul. Zeta agrees that a body of living metal is probably the best deal she’s likely to get at this point; they choose a body of bronze with copper hair, as the closest to humanity without pathetic, doomed attempts at skin-tone enamel.
 
The Konjurors must also get the hostages home. Artifex erases the traumatic memories from the catatonic Sara-Maria. Madame Zora decides that she’d rather not remember this, either. Judge Talmadge and Mr. Doyle, however, decide to keep their memories. The Judge is just plain tough: After several years with a son he had to chain in the basement every full moon, not much fazes him. Mr. Doyle simply doesn’t want anything from his worthless son. He excoriates Artifex for never telling his parents that he was still alive. Artifex responds with his usual I-am-not-who-I-was, self-made-man speech. As Artifex Gates Mr. Doyle back to South Boston, Mr. Doyle bitterly says that it’s quite all right if Artifex never speaks to him again.
 
Finally, the heroes assemble again for the resurrection of Zeta Krafft. At last, Mulciber pours the soul-metal into the mold, breaks it open and animates her new body with a plunge in the quenching-vat. Zeta is shocked and dismayed with her new form: It’s rough and schmutzy. Well, duh: It hasn’t been burnished and polished yet. Mulciber tosses Artifex a jar of polish and says, with a leer, that he expects Artifex will want to help with that part. Artifex blushes, for the first time that any of the other Konjurors has seen.
 
Aftermath: Artifex does *not* put any moves on Zeta; he doesn’t have any. In fact, he knows almost nothing about relating to real women outside scripted, artificial roles such as singles bars. Zeta is still dealing with shock. If anything develops between Artifex and Zeta, it’ll take time. They discover, though, that for metal bodies a good burnish is the equivalent of a massage.
 
The heroes will certainly see some fallout from this adventure. Mulciber’s defection shifts the balance of power between the Imaginal Realms and is sure to infuriate the Descending Hierarchy. Artifex now owes a favor to Rick, which is no biggie, and two favors to the Emperor, which is. His soul is in hock as much as it was when he signed Mulciber’s contract. Zeta was travelling when Sagana captured her, and has no home at the moment.
 
And what will Mulciber himself do? Will his subordinate demons poof back to the Netherworld if dispelled or knocked out? Talbot is pretty sure they will, unless they obtain immigration permits too or Mulciber transforms them in some way. A few days later, though, the Babylon newspapers (who obsess on the story for the obligatory nine days and no more) report that Mulciber has hired a marketing agency to find what consumers and businesses want in a demonic artisan minion, and he’s advertising the services of Mulciber Craft Associates Inc. Mount Mulciber itself shifts from Central Park to co-locate with Vesuvius, accessible by way of the Pompeii district — an eerie journey. It also co-locates less continuously with Lantau Peak (Hong Kong) and is sometimes seen in the distance from the Seattle, Naples and Tokyo districts, where it replaces the volcanoes seen from those cities.
-----------
Dean Shomshak

To me, the split between how we do combat and how we do skills is one of the fundamental things that makes it Hero and not some other system.  I mean, we have a bunch of dichotomies in the system: physical vs. psionic combat (CV vs. ECV/MCV), physical vs. energy defense, normal vs. resistant defense, normal vs. killing damage (and mechanics)... 
 
You could take away one or more of those -- maybe even most of them, and to me it would still "be the HERO System" ... but if you change that one thing, that's the heart and soul, to me.  Fuzion, GURPS, M&M, d20/D&D... all of those systems settled on their own singular, unified systems for combat and skill rolls.  And while I've played and enjoyed most of those systems, it always feels like something's missing.  
 
It took me a long time to figure it out.  Within the past year, in fact.  Wayne Shaw (he of "Thanks, Wayne"), who invented a number of things we use in the HERO System, wrote on RPG.net that if he could have done one thing differently it would have been that.  That was when it hit me, and I responded to him that I was happy that he did it this way.  
 
Why that, and not something else?  I have no idea.  I don't even know if that particular bit grabs anyone else the way it does me.  

My reading says that the Version of the Character who paid for the Multiform gets the experience even when earned in one of their other forms.  Which is a very good thing.

To me, the split between how we do combat and how we do skills is one of the fundamental things that makes it Hero and not some other system.  I mean, we have a bunch of dichotomies in the system: physical vs. psionic combat (CV vs. ECV/MCV), physical vs. energy defense, normal vs. resistant defense, normal vs. killing damage (and mechanics)... 
 
You could take away one or more of those -- maybe even most of them, and to me it would still "be the HERO System" ... but if you change that one thing, that's the heart and soul, to me.  Fuzion, GURPS, M&M, d20/D&D... all of those systems settled on their own singular, unified systems for combat and skill rolls.  And while I've played and enjoyed most of those systems, it always feels like something's missing.  
 
It took me a long time to figure it out.  Within the past year, in fact.  Wayne Shaw (he of "Thanks, Wayne"), who invented a number of things we use in the HERO System, wrote on RPG.net that if he could have done one thing differently it would have been that.  That was when it hit me, and I responded to him that I was happy that he did it this way.  
 
Why that, and not something else?  I have no idea.  I don't even know if that particular bit grabs anyone else the way it does me.  

I can totally respect that.
 
And, to be honest, it was only that mention of the issue by Wayne that got me thinking about how it may be a stumbling block for folks new to the system. I respect his judgement a lot.
 
Even so, I can't recall a player having an issue with skill throws, since the target is on the sheet and it's still 3d6 roll under.
 
It may be more of an aesthetic issue than a stumbling block.

I don't think lowering the barrier to entry is the same as making it palatable to every possible roleplayer.  
 
It's intimidating.  The college textbook-sized tomes especially, but even the Complete books are somewhat difficult to parse, and for all they're "complete" they might just not quite be.  
 
We can have easier to tackle "starter sets" without losing the heart of the HERO System.

I don't think lowering the barrier to entry is the same as making it palatable to every possible roleplayer.  
 
It's intimidating.  The college textbook-sized tomes especially, but even the Complete books are somewhat difficult to parse, and for all they're "complete" they might just not quite be.  
 
We can have easier to tackle "starter sets" without losing the heart of the HERO System.

I don't think lowering the barrier to entry is the same as making it palatable to every possible roleplayer.  
 
It's intimidating.  The college textbook-sized tomes especially, but even the Complete books are somewhat difficult to parse, and for all they're "complete" they might just not quite be.  
 
We can have easier to tackle "starter sets" without losing the heart of the HERO System.

There's no reason at all, regardless of what edition you're playing, that a GM can't import a particular rule or power from a different edition.  Instant Change for later editions or Change Environment for earlier ones are pretty obvious choices to me, for example.  
 

Additional rules, but yes.  Champions III, not the 3rd edition corebook.

Still missing my point.  Even with a "guide", with the HERO system the new player would still be making decisions about something that they really have no concept of how it works in the game. 
 
I have watched and participated in games where the GM spent HOURS working and explaining and advising brand new players on building their characters. 
Only to have the end product be meh or the new player actually leaving "because Hero is TOO HARD" and joining the D&D game. 
But the times we gave them a character to try, they were able to quickly grasp the concepts and make their PC's after the session.  In the supers games I played/ran all the players maintained multiple PC's. If you character was out for a while (captured, in the hospital, etc.) then you played one of your other characters.  For new players, we would ask what kind of Hero they wanted to make and then one of us loaned the new player one of our PC's that was near.  
 
Perhaps a combination.
A small short intro adventure with pregens, Brawl in the City. 
They get walked though a short scenario and have the short super-battle with the guide making explanations such as you suggested.
Then a walk through on how the pregens had been designed with the hows and whys.
Followed by a "let's design your new character" guide with suggestions.

I'd love to go! 
 
But it's a bit out of my commute range, I'm afraid.... 

Thank you for doing that research, Chris!
 
So, the concept goes way back to 1984: characters can only make one attack per phase, but that one attack can involve using multiple Powers that go off together. The quoted section goes on to reinforce this regarding Multipowers: "A character couldn't throw different parts of a Multipower together, because the Powers don't always go off the same way. But a character could have several Powers in the same slot together, so long as they all go off at the same time together."
 
We also know that "one attack per phase" can mean attacking multiple people: area affect, autofire, and sweep all allow that.
 
So, multiple Powers and multiple targets were explicitly OK at least as far back as 1984, as long as you'd paid for the ability to do that.
 
The exception is the case of Sweep, where you don't have to pay for it, you just have to be in the right circumstances.
 
But that maneuver was introduced in 1985's Fantasy HERO 1e as a unique bit for that genre. In that game, it is restricted to the Common Melee Weapon group and quarterstaffs.
 
Four years later, in the BBB, that weapon proviso was softened to "usually" limit it to "big weapons," but to then say that it can be done with bare hands as well.