Re: Basic Rules Skills
Aye, HERO is definitely an interesting world to dive right into. I myself started with D20 (D&D 3.0, d20Modern, Star Wars d20), then started broke my teeth on this style of rpg with Tri-Stat, which was a very strange transition from d20, but is a simpler system to HERO. Thus I got bored with it because it was too simple. Then I heard about HERO System right before FRED came out (fifth revised edition). I have no plans on turning back, ever.
I most definitely highly recommend purchasing HERO Designer (HD). When i first started with HERO I didn't have it, was doing it all by hand. Finally I was fed up with it and got HD. When I put in my characters I'd made on paper it turns out I'd made a lot of math errors, even using a calculator. For that reason alone it's worth it, but the fact that it makes creating a character much easier just makes it all the better. Being able to create and modify a power with just a couple clicks is easier than looking through a book, back and forth, figuring modifiers, changing costs, again and again and again, is way awesome. GET IT!!!!