Brian Stanfield

I don't know if you have them, but Pulp Hero (5th) is one of the best general genre books ever written for Pulp.
 
Thrilling Places and Thrilling Hero Adventures (also 5th) are great supplements. 
 
But to be honest, Thrilling Places would be a lot better with a HiRes map pack. 

We decided on a Pulp era adventure. I'll create the characters, but they all came up with some great ideas for me to work with. I've got a disgraced federal agent turned private investigator, a Russian precursor to "Red Sparrow," who actually left Russia to escape the Communists, a silent movie starlet who was a Romanian gypsy who relocated to the United States as part of a circus, an industrial espionage specialist and face man of many talents, and a rough and tumble Asian scholar with his eyes on prizes that are worth more than what is normally acceptable in academia. They came up with great complications for their characters too, which I wasn't sure they'd pick up so quickly. 
 
So now to come up with an adventure for them all to use their abilities. I believe this looks like a job for the Empire Club!

I think you're fine to upload it, just give credit to the original author (if known) I would say.

This is pretty much why I went from 3e to 6e in the rules. I quit playing with my friends when I went to college, and always meant to teach people the HERO System, but time marched on and I never got around to it. I saw the 5e book a few years ago at a used book store, and my friend got it for me. Then I discovered 6e had been out for many years and I decided to make the full shift to those rules. It was a long debate with myself because I always liked the figured characteristics, but once I made the decision I’ve been trying to master the rules enough to teach others. Now, I finally have a group of friends who are interested to learn! So for the first time in over 30 years I have a group again. 

This is pretty much why I went from 3e to 6e in the rules. I quit playing with my friends when I went to college, and always meant to teach people the HERO System, but time marched on and I never got around to it. I saw the 5e book a few years ago at a used book store, and my friend got it for me. Then I discovered 6e had been out for many years and I decided to make the full shift to those rules. It was a long debate with myself because I always liked the figured characteristics, but once I made the decision I’ve been trying to master the rules enough to teach others. Now, I finally have a group of friends who are interested to learn! So for the first time in over 30 years I have a group again. 

This is pretty much why I went from 3e to 6e in the rules. I quit playing with my friends when I went to college, and always meant to teach people the HERO System, but time marched on and I never got around to it. I saw the 5e book a few years ago at a used book store, and my friend got it for me. Then I discovered 6e had been out for many years and I decided to make the full shift to those rules. It was a long debate with myself because I always liked the figured characteristics, but once I made the decision I’ve been trying to master the rules enough to teach others. Now, I finally have a group of friends who are interested to learn! So for the first time in over 30 years I have a group again. 

One of my players writes: 
 
 
Another one writes: 
 
 
 
Edit:  Forgot to add, the above messages were shared with permission.

My group meets Saturday to decide what we’ll run. I’m letting them pick something they’re interested in so they’re more likely to want to learn. 

My group meets Saturday to decide what we’ll run. I’m letting them pick something they’re interested in so they’re more likely to want to learn. 

My group meets Saturday to decide what we’ll run. I’m letting them pick something they’re interested in so they’re more likely to want to learn. 

You could have a hit location chart on the character sheet. Not just to give the attack mods but also lets players track their own armour values on the their sheets.

It's been a minute since I've crunched the the numbers on this, but it leads to modest increase in average stun and body damage compared to 3d6.
 
It certainly does feel more right than punching someone in the ankle, though.

I think the big part of it is making that extra roll (to see what hit location was hit) dramatic. If the kill shot ends up hitting the arm instead, it needs a dramatic telling anyway... "You see your opening and drive your sword for the kill... (rattle, rattle 8! I hit... his upper arm?), but the bandit lord turns and the blade slides across his upper bicep! His armor is thin there, and the blade cuts through. Red wells up and he hisses in pain, but it isn't a killing blow!"
 
Definitely not, "Oh... arm shot. That sucks. Too bad for you." 
 
The dramatics and making sure the hit locations don't make the players feel ineffectual is important, IMO. Usually, the hit location roll is a "lean in" moment for the table, though... everyone looking to see if a head shot comes up!
 
Edit: Oh... I tend to default that HtH attacks roll the High Shot (2d6+1 right?) automatically, unless the player chooses to have the full body target (using a spear, or swinging a sword can more easily go to all parts of the body, or the player just wants the 3d6 chance). That tends to "feel" more correct for HtH in my experience, but clearly just a preference.

Brian, did you ever figure out which genre you were going to run?  If you're running a heroic genre, and if you're using the Hit Location Chart, I'd say go ahead and use it the first session.  My two new players in my DI game loved it.  They wondered why we didn't do it in the Champions game.  
 
What I found with my newer players is that if you give them a number to roll against, and it's on the sheet somewhere, they're happy to look on the sheet to find it.  So I'd go over the character sheet first with them.  Maybe say something like "These are some values here that we're going to refer to frequently," and point them to OCV, DCV, Perception Roll, DEX, SPD, phases, PD and ED (both normal and total), CON, and where they mark off BODY, STUN, and END loss.  Maybe make up a second sheet with all of that info, plus the combat maneuvers with their effective OCV/basic attack roll and DCV pre-filled, and nothing more, to go along with their main sheet.  
 
For combat, I would go over the combat sequence checklist.  6e2 p. 34 has the one for 6th edition; I think all of the previous editions' core rulebooks have one as well but I don't recall page numbers offhand.  I would give an explanation of the Speed Chart ("HERO's initiative system").  Explain roughly how phased movement works, how combat starts on segment 12, how the post-12 Recovery and Recovery in general works.  Then I'd run a short basic combat against easy-to-dispatch foes.  
 
Whatever you call OCV and DCV, I cannot strongly enough recommend that you pre-add 11 to OCV and have that written down on the character sheet.  
 
When they say "What do I roll again?" which they will do  often   Remind them "It's a combat roll, so 3d6, and you're rolling against your Offense / Basic Attack Roll" or whatever you end up calling it.  Or "It's a Perception roll, so roll 3d6 less than or equal to where it says PER Roll" and make sure that's on the sheet somewhere.  Or "It's your Climbing Skill" or whatever, "and roll 3d6 less than or equal to your Climbing value."  Or, "It's a damage roll, so look for the Power/weapon/attack/maneuver/etc., and roll that many dice.  You want high numbers here."  
 
I can't believe I forgot to do this, but I've just now asked my new Hero gamers from the Danger International game for their feedback.  I'll pass that along.  
 

Love this stuff. It is a head scratcher about whether to do it in Game 1, because it is more dice rolling and rules, but at the same time, it is a very visceral and cinematic aspect of the game... it is a rule that enforces colorful description and dynamic imagination... rather than just "I hit... X stun, Y body." 
 
I'm torn on this, because hands down, my favorite part of the game is combat with hit locations... so i'm biased.

Really depends on your group and what the players like.
 
They're going to need help getting through it the first few times.  I did find replacing OCV and DCV with Offense and Defense made a BIG difference in how easily they remembered it.

I saw it and knew I wanted to use it, just had to find a place I could make it fit.

@drunkonduty I love the “tough guy” image that you used!

Exactly. I tried to teach HERO System to a buddy of mine, an experienced gamer for years, but I didn't do a very good job of soft-starting the process. It led to a whole discussion as a result: 
What I discovered was that, without a tightly defined set of limits from the outset, like guidelines for characteristics, etc., the possibilities were too vast and paralyzing for even an experienced gamer. I tried to do some damage control by limiting things to Fantasy Hero Complete, but by that point there were just too many numbers flying around for him to understand for the char-gen process. Again, they've changed the character sheets for 6e to not include starting base values and costs (like they did in every edition before), which is flabbergasting to me.
 
So, if I create some decent pre-gens and let them play around with the rules a bit through game play, hopefully it'll become more natural to them when it comes time to create their own characters. 

Fantasy Hero Basic_6thed.pdf
 
Hi Brian.
 
I've uploaded my beginners guide for fantasy hero.
 
Feel free to use any, all, or none of it for your own group.
 
Cheers.

I don't even want to talk about Fuzion.    Let's just let it lie where it is.  
 
As far as editions go, the major giveaway would have been the fact I was using the first-gen linear Range Modifiers.  If you had gone over the characters with a fine-toothed comb you'd have seen I used the original Danger International costs for Skills.  And, that was about it.  (Oh, they all had COM scores, but I think they were all 10, and it never came up in play.)  While I noted down END costs for STR Minimums in weapon use, 1 END per 5 STR is a perfectly cromulent rule for 4th, 5th, and 6th edition heroic level games.  
 
Compare that with the Champions game I played in on Friday night.  The characters were all pregens; the only giveaway there would have been the fact that the Characteristics omitted COM and were listed in 6th edition order, and CV's weren't CHA/3.  We used hex maps for the first combat, scenery on the tabletop with rulers for the second; some of the characters had movement listed in hexes/inches and some in meters.  I don't remember if point costs were listed on the sheets or not.  In play, I couldn't have told you whether it was 4th, 5th, or 6th edition.  
 
As far as rules changes go, there are two sets of significant "generational" changes:  the changes from 3rd edition to 4th (buying Reduced END Cost on Powers, Range Modifier switching from linear to exponential, loss of diminishing returns costs in Disadvantages and Enhanced Senses), and the changes from 5ER to 6th (decoupling of Figured Characteristics and Combat Values; switching from hexes/gridded to meters/optional grid).  All else is tweaking of costs.  
 
I declare the Edition Wars over.

I love this sort of inside-out storytelling approach. It’s like Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil. If you haven’t seen that, then boy do I have a nice surprise for you . . . .

Hmmm . . . if only there were convenient cards available to whip up a nominally customized character in only a couple of minutes, which can then be printed from HERO Designer. . . . That would seem like the best of both worlds, would it not?

And by the way, I've run out of "likes" for the day, the last two days. So if I don't react to your post, "thanks" just the same! I'll give you all a blanket "like" and try to keep up as much as I can. Thanks so much for the input!

And by the way, I've run out of "likes" for the day, the last two days. So if I don't react to your post, "thanks" just the same! I'll give you all a blanket "like" and try to keep up as much as I can. Thanks so much for the input!