Re: Fuzion
I appreciate Shane contacting me and letting me know about the discussion here. Though I am not deeply involved in Hero System anymore, I will always maintain a strong fondness for it, and I am very grateful that Steve, Darrin, and their fine folks are doing such an amazing job of keeping it all alive and well.
Having said that, here are my reasons for not going with the other systems mentioned:
Fuzion: I think the circumstances speak for themselves.
Action!: It was simply going to take too much extra work to get magic and powers to work the way I wanted, and frankly I was burned out on anything even like Fuzion at the stage where I considered it. I do have a great deal of respect for Mark, though, and hope it continues to grow for him.
D20: I simply could not design for the bloody thing! I asked for industry experts to help me, even, and no one could give me a reasonable description of how things balanced or were designed. That's when Shane Hensley stepped up to the plate and sent me a set of books for -
Savage Worlds: Amazingly flexible and exceptionally easy to design for. It does not have the "power" of Hero System (I doubt anything ever will), but it comes closest, in my mind, to being a "lite" system that does a lot of Hero fan might hope for if they wanted something a little less crunchy to play with for certain genres.
Now, as to why I did not pursue doing it in Hero System...
At one point, I seriously considered it. However, at the time, Steve was pretty focused on keeping all HS development in-house and close to the vest. I respect that - he got his favorite "toy," and he wanted to keep it in his sandbox for a while.
Now that it appears others are able to explore publishing with Hero rules, I may have to revisit the idea once I get some Savaged Shaintar stuff out the door...
