BigJackBrass

And of course there was this.

Apologies if there's a more appropriate place to put this, but I thought it might be of interest that over at ENworld they're asking for people to nominate their favourite RPG related mobile apps, which you can do through this handy link.

Savage Worlds got a good boost early on with its free "one sheet" adventure format. Lots of short scenarios, playable with very little additional work, and they looked professional. I expect they were very useful for driving traffic to PEG's website too.

It was a Champions New Millennium boardgame of superhero combat, packaged as a little ziploc game. Not bad for what it was trying to do.

Speaking as a close personal friend of the OP I can say with some confidence that he was just sharing something he found interesting 😊

The only reason I've been stalking eBay for some Hero books is because the ones I want are either out of print or, as with Champions 6th edition, effectively out of print (the only physical option being a black and white print on demand paperback). Getting any of the books in the UK these days is difficult, one more problem when it comes to expanding the player base.

PS238 also includes enough rules for play.

OK, so the original Champions is not precisely the same game that we have in Hero System 6 Edition or Champions Complete, but I still found this to be an interesting counterpoint to the prevailing Internet wisdom that Hero is an impenetrable game only playable by people with degrees in mathematics. In the September 1981 issue of The Space Gamer, Aaron Allston reviewed Champions: In other, only slightly related, news I finally bought a copy of Champions 6th edition this week for the bargain sum of £22 (about $27). Patience and eBay stalking for the win!

Surely these are not legal to distribute? None of the stuff is public domain, after all.

Something else to consider might be a programme such as Bits & Mortar, where participating publishers provide a free PDF if you but their game at other than an online discounter. Evil Hat are especially generous in this regard, but others are involved. It can save a lot and provide additional convenience, although naturally it's for RPGs rather than boardgames.

Generally the books and games I want to buy aren't easy to find in stores locally (and that includes the area where I work, which is a major city over an hour away by train from where I live), but my first choice is to ask one of the shops if they can be ordered. Quite often they can't, so I then turn to smaller businesses on the internet. Some of them are actual shops offering mail order, so buying from them is basically supporting someone else's local store; some are internet only but far removed from the likes of Amazon. Often they are people I've met at conventions and got to know through Twitter. Sometimes it works out surprisingly well: last week I ordered what I guessed were second-hand Champions supplements from a shop, but they turned out to be old stock... Shrinkwrapped third edition supplements including the GM screen for less than the original selling price, because the seller wasn't trying to inflate the cost and offer them as collector's items. So I ordered some more. I don't have much money to spare, but where I spend it does matter to me and in recent years I've tried to move away from automatically seeking the greatest discount. Ultimately, if I can't really afford the price of a hobby purchase then either I save up and buy it in future, or else I don't really need it; but that's a personal choice and I would not suggest that it should be the one everyone makes.

That's helpful, thank you Beast. I've not looked into 6th edition as the thought of starting again after 5th was rather daunting, so I don't know how different the numbers are. I'll do a bit of reading now I know that the cards might work.

These cards are a terrific idea and certainly address one of the key complaints about Hero, the lengthy and involved character gen. How much would need to be changed to make them work with 5th edition instead of 6th? Would it be worthwhile, or are the numbers simply too different?

Fantastic, Lord Liaden. I'll definitely be settling down to watch that later.