Christopher R Taylor

That might have more to do with shield wall tactics than anything, though.

5th edition kind of gutted the cantrips from what I understand

They were pretty evenly matched in the comics and the Avengers animated series, partly because he was Captain America-trained. But I don't know how they'd match up in the cinematic universe; she did kick his mind-controlled hind end, but that might not have been him at his best.

For some, the chance to complain and sit hoping things come to them trumps ambition and making things happen. Its a sort of societal divide that's getting bigger and bigger in the modern west.

Alternate or fantastical mounts bring up interesting ideas. Does that intelligent super warhorse run better and longer, because it can think through what its doing, or will it be too smart to run its self too far, and not go as far? Does the unicorn's healing ability make it able to run forever?

I have both because my soft cover fell apart and I had to repair it with duct tape. Still got it though. And champs I-III and 3rd edition with the Viper's Nest module I can't keep up with the publishing these days, though. I'm just glad I got stuff like Valley of Mystery and Strike Force when they came out.

Yeah Speed, the stat. So you move at speed 4 no matter what your actual Speed stat is instead of moving faster because you have a higher Speed. I mean, a guy with 12m movement and 4 speed (theoretically human max) is twice as fast as a guy with 2 speed. Its just odd. And of course all this is about humans and horses. How fast does a centaur run? And how long? What about a Griffon in flight? A riding spider?

I don't think the concern is unbalancing, but the basic concept and nature of talents is usually not damage (but not always - deadly blow, for example). But there's nothing that says you can't do it. When I finish my "player's handbook," it will have Talent-style versions of the spells with all the sausage guts hidden away in the "DM guide" (whatever they will be called). I think the power roll approach really is the best one, and its damn well gonna show up in the books as well - as Cantrips. Each school will have some super basic effects that you can do just with 1 END and a magic skill roll. Stuff mages throw off without effort or concentration. Like light a fire, snuff a candle, heat their tea, etc.

Actually it makes perfect sense and that's how the military handles thing.

Its really hard to find a solid formula for Long Term Endurance that's both plausibly accurate and easy to use. Any realistic system becomes hopelessly complicated and any simple formula falls apart in too many circumstances. So its probably best to just hand wave it, and say "you burned up x LTE today" based on events and baggage. And I really like Long Term Endurance in a game, because it helps create things like diseases and force reasonable behavior. If you have the flu, you burn through long term END faster. If you jog with a 50 pound pack full of jewels on your back, you're going to tire out. It prevents excesses in plausibility, and in many settings, that's a positive. Because of superior stats, players will be able to do more and be more heroic than the average fellow, but still will face limits. Honestly, while I do appreciate the idea behind movement being tied to speed, it really probably ought to be separate, so you act on your speed, but move at a set rate separate from your actions, like riding in a vehicle.

I agree, but there are other ways to contribute, as I noted above. Its a matter of desire and passion and ambition, not ability. Say you can't create much, have no artistic talent, or writing ability. You can back kickstarters, you can talk to gamer friends, you can run a game at a CON or at the local stores, you can put up fliers to get people to come learn how to play on your own. You can find people with talent and help them get their product out. You can post promoting rather than degrading stuff around the internet about Hero. Or you can sit at a keyboard and complain on a forum.

This is a pretty well-known effect for RPGs. There's a limited market (lets face it, this isn't a hugely popular hobby even at its peak) and once everyone has bought the books... they don't buy any more. Hence: D&D putting out a new edition every few years. So you wanted Epic1!!!!!!11!!! and got real. Hero Games has been under the exact same model since its very beginning. In fact, the only game system that advertised outside gaming magazines and cons (which Hero does advertise in), was TSR with those Bill Willingham strips on the back of comics and godawful TV advertisements in the early 80s. Hobbies don't advertise. Ever seen ad for knitting needles? Bird watching binoculars? Chess sets? When's the last time you saw a banner ad for woodworking? Not every single business model follows the same pattern. Youcan't pick one model of business learned in a class in school and figure every single company and industry is like that. All those questions have already been answered above. You can sit here and complain about how things aren't falling out of the sky into your lap, or get out and make something happen. Its your choice.

Its also possible that the armored folk were so much more likely to survive that they didn't lie dead in a heap with the others

Right, the cost is in the production, not the format. POD costs you nothing to set up and prepare, only to print. And the beauty of print on demand is that you can just not print anything until you get buyers. Having them order off your POD site means no up front thousands to print copies. If you get the publication costs out of the way, then all that's left is if you want inventory to do the fundraising for copies printed off. If it doesn't work, then you're out some time but still have product to sell.

These look like an illusion for most of them, although you could use a cosmetic transform with a narrow variable result (these sort of effects) of a die or two. The effects are tiny and minor, and making a plant bloom is not anything beyond how it looks, really. These all look like minor change environment or images. Probably a Change Environment with a few effects the character can pick between would be fine. Again, images to sight and sound. The door or window thing is a bit more powerful and would probably require a minor telekinesis of a few strength. I love very low end cantrip type effects. Its this stuff that makes someone seem magical, more than the big blasts and such. Superheros can throw around lighting but it feels magical to make a plant bloom or shape fire.

Definitely adding at least links to POD would be good

Well in one sense, all of publishing is in trouble, the way you mean it. Not just games, all publishing, from newspapers to magazines to books. In another sense there's never been a better time for games because there's so many options, so much creativity, so many interesting things going on that not only do gamers have tons of fun options, but publishers can do what they never have before. 30 years ago, I couldn't have gotten Hero Games to put my stuff on their catalog and license it, sell it in their own personal store, and reach the entire planet, no matter how hard Rob Bell tried. 20 years ago I could't have even have published what I do now.

Yeah the Hole in the Wall Gang would set up fresh horses at regular stages along their getaway route, posses had no chance of catching them. Plus, in game terms, riding rolls and animal handling rolls can get more out of a horse than just a rider. Skill and care in how you ride, paths taken, how you interact with the horse, etc can all help.

Well, all that, and a horse can get you there faster, if you don't care about the horse.

Pretty much anything that was put out with the Hero reboot attempt Fuzion, really. I would say that Savage Dragon was in the era but he wasn't really part of the genre.

Yeah there's a merchant language as well, mostly hand signals and negotiation terms, but it can be used as a "lingua franca" between various cultures and peoples when traveling and in more wild areas as well. Just trading topics and basic information (1 point max language skill) but enough to get the job done.

True enough, but then not a lot of people actually wore much armor back then. Armor was very expensive and required materials few people had a lot of around to spare, even leather. Nothing in that article suggested they found armor (only bits of weapons) which means either the reporter wasn't interested in that aspect, the warriors were wearing armor that didn't last (bone, leather, wood, cloth), or they didn't have any. Most historical research I've read says that they didn't wear a lot of armor in the pre-bronze and bronze age, unless important people or very wealthy. On the other hand, some cultures did (Egypt, as MarkDoc notes, Spartans, etc) and they wore a lot.

And that's the nutshell of capitalism that isn't taught or understood: what looks like exploitation is in fact opportunity. Starting out at the bottom isn't being a loser, its being a level 1 worker, at the beginning of your quest. You're not being cruelly abused by your boss, you're gaining skills, learning, studying, moving up in "levels" and questing for your ambition. But even if you don't aspire to being a great game writer or whatever, putting out scenarios and supplements can be pretty cheap and then its just (slow, trickling) profit because it costs you nothing to maintain a pdf copy and POD service indefinitely. Putting Hero product on the shelf - especially good quality, in demand product - helps the gaming hobby and Hero games in particular tremendously. If there's 300 products on that virtual shelf, it means easier to get into the game and makes it seem more popular and attractive. That's the other side of the medal, unfortunately. That's part of the problem with how easy it is to publish today and it hurts the market. Everyone is playing their own cobbled up version of a gam instead of the published ones. And that means people aren't buying product. But as MarkDoc says... perhaps that's a marketing edge, an opportunity. All those worldbuilders out there, all those creative writing minds, here's your metastructure to make your own game, without having to build and balance your own rules! I'm pondering the best way to present that. Fantasy seems the most popular build-your-own genre, so maybe a Fantasy Hero book giving the skeleton and guts to adapt to your own world, as well as tips using the system and suggestions. Here's what the stats are, and what they can be understood as or used in your world! How to use the power building rules to create your magic system!

big swords, big guns, tiny feet, gritted teeth, military style jackets with pouches everywhere

Hero has an excellent licensing system by which you can create content for the game and sell it, they will put it on their catalog and take part of the sales, you get the bulk. So there's no "do stuff for free and they get the profit" here. Like I've said before: if you want the game to prosper, what are you doing about it? Not "post moar on the forum boards!!" What are you doing to make it happen?