Norm

Spence One thing I would add (and been saying for awhile) is have some of the adventures kid friendly. 
 

To be fair, pretty much all the successful and popular games do the same.  D&D5th, Modiphius has 5 or 6 RPG's, Savage World and Chaosium is on the way back though without the miniatures.  And there are many others.
 
But you actually left out one of the key factors on why their games are exploding in popularity.   The ability for anyone to create an adventure or supplement without need of a specific contract.  All the currently successful games have some version of an OGL or a "here are the guidelines and you can sell your creation as long as you meet them".   D&D 5th has their "DM Guild" for example. 
 
They also realize that the concept of "GM's only like to run their own settings adventures and will not buy pre-built settings and adventures" is utterly false.
 
The true statement is "GM's really prefer to run their own settings adventures but usually wind up using pre-built settings and adventures, except a lucky few."
 
D&D 5th and Pathfinder adventure books are constantly selling.  And not just those from WotC or Paizo, but the 3rd party adventures are also in demand.  The D&D 5th adventure books sell out every week, and I don't mean just the new one, but my FLGS finds it hard to any of them in stock.
 
I personally like home-brews far more than bought adventures, but due to little pesky things like real life I have run and played far more bought material in the last ten years than anything created by me or a friend.
 
While I fully acknowledge I am not privy to company details, in a general sense this is what I would do.
 
1) Release a Quickstart.  Basic rules, pregenerated PC's and a small adventure.  Notice there is no mention of character generation.  This is the biggest mental block/blindspot of Hero and Hero fandom.  Character creation rules are not playing the game.  Yes they are a great part of the Hero system.  But they are NOT playing the game.  A Champions Quickstart, a Fantasy Quickstart and so on.  Something that will showcase the game for people that have never played and walk a "I have never GM'd before" GM through the scenario for the "I have never played an RPG before" players.  The D&D 5th and the PF both have starter boxes that show polished versions. 
 
2) Release a setting book around a city.  Hero already has them, but they need to be paired down from the "super information overload" versions that Hero became famous for.  The existing books are WAY over detailed.  Also, you must have a map.  An actual usable city map that you can see and read the names of the streets.  For modern settings like Champions the Hudson City color map is perfect and always gets compliments.  I would love to use Vibora Bay, but never had time to build the map that does not exist.  For Fantasy just look at WotC/Paizo and their cities for inspiration.
 
3) Start with one well written multi-scenario adventure per supported line a year (similar to Adventure Paths, Plot Points, etc.) with a minimum of 6 parts.  More and bigger as time goes on.
 
4) Unleash the fandom with a version of OGL or similar that allows them to create and sell PDF adventures.  Looking at WotC D&D 5th OGL and DM Guild differences are a perfect set up.  Reserve larger and hard-copy products for traditional licenses.  But an RPG gets popular when people PLAY it and have fun.  Get the game out there.  
 
5) Reformat the product to appear like it was published after the 1800's.  The rules are good.  There is no need for yet another tweak.  But there is absolutely nothing that will make it leap off the shelf.  The cover was OK, but the old school black and white textbook look prompts 99% of current gamers to put it back on the shelf. 
 
In the end the target audience is not the people on this forum, it is the gamer that is not a Hero player.  The Herophile that is on the "I only play my original material and all the current fantasy settings are lame" program is not going to do anything for Hero, once they buy the one rulebook and they are done. 
It is time to attract the mainstream tabletop gamer that routinely plays pre-generated adventures because they have pesky things like jobs or families and such with the associated lack of spare time. 
 
Simple adventures such as a series of robberies by a small group of super-thieves.  Simple, teaches the system and can be literally dropped into any kind of campaign or game.  Ensure the villains are also "generic" enough to fit into any game.  Leave the "cool" and "unique" weirdness to the GM's out there that are inspired.   
 
A simple fantasy adventure where the PC track down goblins that have been raiding local villages.
 
In the end the target audience is not the majority of the people on this forum.  That majority have already bought the rulebook and have pontificated for years about how they will never buy anything again.  After all they do not buy pre-built "insert product of choice" because real GM's don't buy pre-built products.  So once they have the rulebook, what is left?
 
So they are a wash.
 
Time to get the players and GM's that are constantly buying those same evil pre-built adventures week in and week out. 
 
It is time to realize that it is 2019 and that the conclusions reached in the late 90's early 2000's are 20 years out of date.
 
For proof?  WotC, Paizo, Pelgrane, Chaosium, Modiphius, Troll Lord and Evil Hat just to scratch the surface. 
Settings and Adventures. 
Settings and Adventures.
 
 

I'm currently taking my Saturday group through a pathfinder adventure path, but we're using Hero system rules and characters.  It's working very well.
 
Mostly I just adlib my creature / NPC conversions since there are so many good examples in the Hero Bestiary that I have a good rough-estimate for almost anything I'm trying to work with.
 
Coming back to Hero system hits me squarely in the nostalgia button.  I remember picking up champions when I was like 10 years old.

As many of you already know, over at Bundle of Holding we've launched two new projects based on an absolute mountain of scanning Hero Games has undertaken over the last few months. The first is an Early Champions bundle nearly containing three dozen .PDF ebooks featuring the groundbreaking early rulebooks, supplements, and adventures for Champions, The Super Roleplaying Game from Hero Games. The second offers all five of Hero's non-superhero RPGs, together with all their supplements and adventures, in .PDF ebook form. You can get all of them at bargain prices - but only for a limited time, as the offer ends in 18 days. 
 
Jason Walters, Publisher

That's harsh, Doc.
 
I can't speak for everyone else, but I love other people's ideas.  It's rather fun to see what people have done-- and better, made work!-- that you yourself might not have thought of.
 
On the subject of deletions, though--
 
wasn't this thread longer? I see Scott replying to comments I know I made, but don't see.  Same with some other folks....
 
Weird....
 
 
EDIT:
 
Nevermind; the comments I'm looking for were in a different thread.
 
Sorry for my bonehead moment there, y'all.
 
 

It is funny.....  I am pretty much the same way, but for Pulp/Champions/Super Hero games.  I do not know what it is.....  I can play it...  even enjoy it if it is with the right people....  but will not seek out, nor buy super hero games.  Which is funny as I love Hero.  I love having a consolidated system.  I never understood when people said that D&D/Pathfinder was easier than Hero.  Have you seen all of the character options/feats/thinga-majigs in D&D/Pathfinder?!?!
 
In High School I played Star Wars (West End Games), Cyberpunk, and others.  It is the fact that I grew up during the "SATANIC PANIC!!!!" in corn and bean country that I never really played D&D until college.  sheesh....  Maybe that is why I never burnt out on fantasy.  After only two D&D games, I was introduced to Hero and never really looked back.  When a game ended, our group talked about the next game.  "What genre do you want to play today?  Science fiction, fantasy, cyber-punk...."  Same rules with minor tweaks/flavors.  Great for a poor college student trying to pay his way without loans.  When I moved to a different state, played 7th Sea for about 5 years.  We had a GM that loved the system.  He started running D&D, I bowed out and took a slight break from gaming. 
 
That GM moved away and I started to GM Hero.  No one else stepped up.  Ran Valdorian Age for 2 years then Turakian for 3.  One of our players wanted to GM, but was afraid of running Hero without a canned adventure for some reason.  But he still wanted fantasy...  We were told that Pathfinder fixed a lot of D&D issues and it had better adventures/campaigns.  Well..  we have been playing  Rise of the Runelords for almost 5 years(!!!) and I am burnt out.  We seem to look up and argue over the rules a lot.  We are near the end and one of our other players wants to run 7th Sea 2E.  I am curious how it will turn out.  2E seems more fluffy....  not sure I will like it, but willing to give it a shot.  Which is funny....  I consider Pulp and Swashbuckler to be similar in feel.  
 
Man....  I cannot wait to return to Hero.  Trying to come up with a Fallout/Morrow Project/Postman type of thing.  I have some time as the 7th Sea game will be about 6 months.  One of the reasons I am getting back on to the Hero forums....
 
Sorry for the long, winding, and morose post.  Just trying to say that I understand how you can be not interested in a genre at all.  I think it was you that said in another post that you are happy that discussions like this can happen on the forums without it degrading.
 

You know, suggestions of directions for Hero Games to take are always worth raising and discussing; but at this point I kind of shake my head when people take a position of, "if Hero would just do X everything would be better." The company tried a lot of different Xs over the years, as have third-party publishers. Don't forget that for a time Hero was quite successful. DOJ took a practical, business-based approach to publishing Hero products, and that paid off for years. But the nature of the gaming hobby has changed with the times. No tabletop games that don't resemble D&D are doing boffo business these days, and even D&D holds only a fraction of the market it once had. If there's one magic formula for success it remains elusive. It may be that the heyday of games like Hero is over, whatever tactic is tried.
 
But even if that's true, the system isn't ashes now. New product has continued to be published, albeit slowly and mostly under license. Books are still being sold here and elsewhere. The current lull is not comparable to the glaciation before Fifth Edition was published. And things may look up again one day. But we aren't here because the people who own Hero now are too dumb to read the right tea-leaves.

Thanks, Brian.
 
As a matter of fact, I ordered that CD rom just last month.  I _still_ haven't opened it yet.  I really need to find the time!    for the most part, though, the two Traveller HERO books that shadowcat so very graciously sent me some years ago have served all my game-resolution needs, while my original Traveller books (what few I have) manage to keep my universe eventful.  Though I haven't had a traveller group in well over a year now...
 
I bought the disk primarily because, even though they will never get the HERO license again, I really, _really_ wanted to support the effort that went into the making of Traveller HERO, and the exemplary people they have demonstrated themselves to be.

Maybe so!
 
Then again, Iron Man is totally metal, and Frodo is fairly square.

Yes, it was part of a pack that was released by BlackWyrm when Star Hero 6E came out back in 2011.  I did not realize it until I just looked...  But they  actually have the PDF version still in the Store.  I was interested in some of them, so bought the books when they came out.
 
https://www.herogames.com/forums/store/product/566-project-wyrmstar-seven-settings-for-star-hero-six-edition-pdf/
 
I love to reuse or get a starting point by begging, borrowing, or stealing ideas.  One scientist's steam powered armor could easily be turned into some engineer's clockwork armor or some magician's metal golem.  Seems like it is the only way I can get some things done now that I am married and have a kid.  Great way to learn also.
 

Some of the landscapes I have collected over the years as background references.

If you look at Fantasy Hero 6e, p. 225, there are some suggestions on how armor may show wear and break down. It could easily be applied to futuristic armor. 

If I recall correctly, in F4, like most other video games, the armor absorbs _all_ damage until it fails.
 
You can either buy _lots_ do defense, with ablative, but you will get to a point where by champions rules you will take damage through the armor. 
 
You can buy lots of limited body per hit location. 
 
Honestly, there are a lot of ways to do it; those are the simplest I can think of. 
 
 
 

The question is more about how precisely you want to copy the game mechanics. Often mechanical implementations in games only make sense in the context of that specific game. Mechanics are narative tools in games. It goes as far as that mechanics can tell stories all on their own, no text involved. And something that works well in a Singleplayer Videogame propably does not translate so well to a Teambased Pen & Paper RPG.
Point in case, not a single Fallout game before 4 even had this Power Armor Model. Power armors were some basic +2 Strenght, lots of Damage reduction. The same as the Labcoats, Leatherjackets and Combat Armor.
 
The Hero system already has rules for loosing armor proteciton, via the Focus rules. "Power Armor" is a Focus with many provided pwoers (Armor, Strenght, Jumping to negate falling damage). There are rules abotu how such a item would loose powers, with the armor usually being stripped last. As others have said, there are options like Ablative or realizing it as a sort of "Form Fitting Barrier". I can even remember a "Endurace cost based on damage absorbed" limitation in one of the Advanced Player Guides.

Ablative.

You need to look for how you want to model it and then decide on what kind of limitation it is worth.
 
I think you could twist yourself in knots trying to replicate taking BODY, or using a kind of limited Barrier power. You would have to remember that the Barrier has to be advantaged to allow you to fire out while someone else cannot fire in.  Complicated and expensive very quickly.
 
Instead think about what you want.  
 
Will it function (when it is active) like regular armour?  If so, we have the right power.
 
Describe how it will fail.  If the armour is not breached will it lose coherence?  If so, does it lose more coherence when it is breached?  How many hits (whether they breach the defence or not) before the armour fails?  Will it be proportionate to the damage taken (more complex) or not? 
 
Once you have that detail, you will be able to see how often the armour is likely to fail in-game and you can assign a number to that.
 
My immediate thoughts, if you want to go with rules already written down, is use physical manifestation.  You can rule that damage that exceeds the defence goes through to damage both the physical manifestation of the defence as well as the character as normal.
 
Your instincts are good though, while this kind of thing feels aesthetically pleasing, it can quickly become burdensome in gameplay and slow things down.  It might be easier for the player to have a set of chips and every time they take damage they throw one away (decide the conditions under which they return - like a phase where the character is not hit or when the armour is switched off/repaired etc), when there are no chips left, the armour has failed.
 
Doc
 

Thank you everyone for responding.  For some reason the way that the armor pieces work in Fallout 4 power armor was giving me a bit of analysis paralysis.  
 
I have been perusing various Hero System based books for examples of power(ed) armor.  
Star Hero pointed me towards Hero System Equipment guide. Hero System Equipment Guide has some good write-ups of powered armor. Kazei 5 have powered armor and mechs sections.  The Widening Gyre has some steam-powered armor.  Hey...  they have great descriptions....  who doesn't want a set of Death Badger armor!?!? And yes...  I was one of the people that got the multi-book (6 I think) set from BlackWyrm when Star Hero 6E was released.
 
I have also been looking around the files area for Hero Designer on this site.  There are write-ups for Traveller and Warhammer 40K conversions.  Speaking of Traveller, I bought the Traveller Hero CDROM from Far Future (http://farfuture.net/) a while ago.  I need to crack that open and look through it.
 
No matter what I do, I plan on writing it up in Hero Designer and uploading it.
 
Thank you again for your time and help.

Draining a defense only gets you half the value of whatever you roll on the dice. Having any kind of sizable drain go off at the same time as a blast effect is going to make for an ungodly large active point attack.
 
If you don't have it go off at the same time as the blast, the character is going to have to blow a phase to do the drain...and that's not going to be worth doing in the vast majority of fights.
 
Transform is what first came to mind but it has much the same problems as doing a drain effect.
 
On the other hand, you could just link a few extra dice of effect onto whatever ice attack is being used and only have the extra dice go off if the target is already wet. That's the lowest active point option I can think of and is less bookkeeping than either a drain or transform. For example, a 10d6 ice blast plus 3d6 blast (limitation only on the 3d6 of -0 only if target is already wet). The limitation isn't worth any points, in my opinion, because the character can make targets wet. But some GM's might allow a -1/4 limitation since the extra dice in the power isn't available during her first attack against any target.

How about just increased damage with a limitation on it (soaking wet)?   
 
2D6 Killing Ice Blast
PLUS
1D6 Killing Ice Blast with limitation.
 

How about just increased damage with a limitation on it (soaking wet)?   
 
2D6 Killing Ice Blast
PLUS
1D6 Killing Ice Blast with limitation.
 

Many years ago, a friend ran a Fantasy Hero game, and I decided I wanted to run a summoner, but summoning things rather than creatures or people.  We created a VPP, powered by an END Battery which only recovered END when I paid XP into it.  The amount of END spent controlled how many points worth of summoned item I got.
 
One running gag was that this fantasy wizard could summon things from a modern or sci-fi world, so he may not know how to operate what he summoned.  For example, I might try to summon a sword and instead get a lightsaber.  Or a Ginsu knife, depending on how much END I had spent.  If I was going for, say, a Wand of Fireballs, I might get a flamethrower.  Or a Bic lighter.  After a while, the summoned object typically disappeared, returning to the world from whence it had come.  Though sometimes they stayed with him.  (He had a huge collection of pens, keys, mismatched socks, and so on.  So now you know what happens to all those things you lose along the way.)
 
The other running gag is that I didn't actually control specifically what was summoned -- I just told the GM what I was trying to get and how much END I was spending, and he'd figure out what I actually got.  More often than not, I either way-underspent or way-overspent the needed END for what I was hoping for.
 
One adventure, we were trying to break into a walled compound and were trying to figure out a way past the wall.  We also knew that the bad guys had a wyvern chained up as big nasty guard dog.  We successfully snuck up to the wall, not alerting the guards at all.  I decided to summon "a creature to dig under the wall," saying that my character was thinking something like a Dire Beaver but that I figured on something like a VIPER tunneling machine.  Apparently I didn't spend enough END because what I ended up getting was a backhoe.
 
Still game to try, I hopped in and (having accidentally summoned someone's minivan before, so I kinda-sorta recognized some of the controls) turned the key, starting up the rather loud diesel engine, alerting everyone in a mile radius.  I even put it in gear, thus smashing through the brick wall and allowing my compatriots access to the compound.  They started shooting arrows at me (who was now huddled in the bottom of the operator's cabin shoving random levers back and forth), which made the compound guards think the other PCs were on their side.  Then the wyvern showed up and saw the hoe as a tail, thus thinking the backhoe was a big yellow metal wyvern infringing on its turf.
 
Overall, it was a great distraction - my teammates went in and got what we were after, while I kept the guards and wyvern busy.  I don't recall how I got away, but it was certainly a hoot.

I once had an idea for a character whose only ability was to get 1% better every day, so long as he worked steadily at all the things he wanted to get better at.  At that pace, he would improve 1000 fold every couple years.  
 
I think primitive eugenics will only get you so far, with respect to breeding.  Eugenics coupled with genetic testing will likely go a lot further.  It's easy to imagine someone with legendary level strength, charisma, dexterity, intelligence, and so forth. Perhaps even some special talents or enhanced senses.  If you couple all that with genetic engineering and gene splicing(adding genomes from other species), you can get pretty far into the superhuman range.  
There would certainly be some intersection between breeding and training, and also gray areas like performance enhancing drugs and post-breeding treatments.  
But in terms of superhuman...well, imagine Bruce Lee, only 6'5", 240 lbs, just as fast, and hitting a lot harder.  Or Da Vinci, only with perfect recall and a genius in thrice as many fields of inquiry.  

I tend to wing it.
 
You rolled a 3? I'll likely say something like "Okay, you bypass armor" or "Okay, you do damage and also knock them down."
 
You rolls an 18? I might say you roll damage against yourself or an ally.
 
But it's based on the situation in play, not a formal "this roll means this result" or "roll on this table now" thing.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary wonders how Lucius Alexander wings it so much without wings

Well it won't be any time this month. 
 
I have to say, I sort of got my money's worth here, too! 
 
My book was waiting on me when I got home, and I opened it with the fervor of a five-year-old at Christmas (you know, if said five-year-old had a pocket knife) and was quite shocked to discover that I had accidentally bought the wrong thing.  I checked my order, and it was for a used copy of Western HERO infair to good condition. 
 
What I _got_ was a brand new, unsold copy of Western HERO!  Still in the original cellophane-like wrapping, with several ancient price tags getting lower and lower, then newer ones with much, much higher prices (presumably as it became a. Ollectibke or an antique; I don't know) still stuck to it (all of them _considerably_ less than I payed :(.)
 
While I am delighted with this turn of events, I am also scrupulous: I have an e-mail to the seller to determine if this was a mistake and if they would like to exchange or what-have-you.  As tempting as it is to here that crinkly crunch of Tearing off the wrapper....
 
Not until I am sure, I'm afraid. 
 
And even if I get to keep it, there is no way I am slicing up a book this pristine. 
 
I'll look again next month for one that could only be improved by living in my phone.
 
 

Monthly ask for an update.  Going to do the same on the kickstarter.