Brian Stanfield

I'm agreeing with your idea, just offering up ways to make it (possibly) more appealing to mass market. Namely, have the default rules for modern day gaming in one book with predefinied equipment with hidden builds, etc. Dump all the nonsense like building bases and vehicles and the power system.
 
BUT...
 
Also include some default settings in the book. Yes, an urban fantasy campaign setting could take up a whole book...but also it could be done in 20 pages or less. You exist in a world with monsters that you secretly hunt. Here's your organization, here's some monster stats, here's 10 spells a black witch could learn. That's enough to start playing with. As with everything else in the book, you don't let the player or GM need to pursue their version, you decide for them.
 
Ditto with a Zombie outbreak setting. Here's how it started, spread, and here's several zombie stats. Few roleplayers need more than that to grok a zombie setting. 
 
Etc, etc, etc. Some I'll agree are too complicated for this approach, but others are so much part of the cultural landscape that I don't think they need more than 20-30 pages to be playable. 
 
These mini settings don't have to be big to get people playing, but they do allow the rules to be used by people who would pass over a game set in the modern day that most people don't seem to be interested in.  I suppose that, if this were a kickstarter, these could be the stretchgoals, but I really think you want to have this in the book to appeal to a broader audiance. There is little reason to make an easily digestible and approachable version of HERO if no one picks it up because they aren't interested in the default setting. 

This pretty much sums up the problem with HERO System: they have a whole lot of genre books, each with a whole lot of choices to dial in within each book! Maybe this is the worst of both worlds according to the study!
 
Don't get me wrong: I love all of the books, and love looking at what they each have to offer. But this is definitely coming from the point of view of someone who studies the Hero System pretty intently. I love that there are so many books. But this is a problem for anyone who is new to the system (which is what is always lurking in the background of the assumptions I'm making in this particular thread).
 
There used to be individual one-book games back in the day, and they sold. But that was before there was a HERO System toolbox. They were marketed as being built with the HERO System, but the system itself hadn't yet been published. I'm curious what that would look like today, where the system has been published (along with a gazillion other books!). I think a one-book game would look good being taught and played at conventions, and in marketing of some sort. This would probably all be online because I don't really think HERO System will ever make a good showing at game shops anymore. But that's part of what can hopefully be figured out by the folks who are carrying the torch for DOJ and are interested in doing the work that the owners apparently aren't able to do. This is, of course, a whole other can of worms that we should probably save for another thread.

I’m not sure if you realize that Monte Cook got his start at Iron Crown Enterprises working on various HERO games. So the similarities are not incidental. One thing he does really, really well is create specific settings for his games, and then present them with lavish artwork that is undeniably eye-catching. When was the last time (if ever) you could say that about any HERO game?
 
 

I’m not sure if you realize that Monte Cook got his start at Iron Crown Enterprises working on various HERO games. So the similarities are not incidental. One thing he does really, really well is create specific settings for his games, and then present them with lavish artwork that is undeniably eye-catching. When was the last time (if ever) you could say that about any HERO game?
 
 

They sold mostly because at that time almost any new RPG with decent production values would sell. The problem with most of them, with the exception of Champions, was that they never went much beyond their one book. They never became sustained product lines, and as a result, none of them have any enduring legacy or any ongoing revenue generation.
 

So I just learned about a study published in in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that looked at the decision making processes of shoppers. They found that when shoppers had to choose between 6 jars of Jam or 24 jars of jam, the fewer choices there were the more people purchased. Decision paralysis is a real thing and having limited scope actually helps most people.
 
So yeah, giving most people a book that has a game with all their decisions made is far more likely to bring them to the table as it were then asking them to build it themselves. 

So what if there are one-page advertising blurbs for different audiences, carefully place in the gaming equivalent of the grocery store checkout line? (I'm not sure what that would be, but it would most likely be online venues, conventions, crossover commercial sites, etc. I don't know, but this is where some real creativity is needed by DOJ so they can break out of their long-worn rut.)
Never played an RPG: Have you ever finished your favorite [fill in the genre] book, and wanted the adventure to continue? Maybe you'd be into a Role Playing Game where you can actually be the character, and make the decisions for yourself. It's like a Choose-your-own-adventure book (probably a dated reference), but with a limitless number of choices! Read (or watch) comics/fantasy/science fiction: You ever think of making your own superhero? You ever think of becoming that character in your own story? Maybe you'd be into Champions Role Playing Game . . . etc. Play D&D or Pathfinder: Hey, are you tired of being forced into the narrow confines of someone else's character classes? Sick of realizing your skill tree dead-ends long before you get to the good stuff? Have you ever wanted to create a character with absolutely no constraints other than what your imagination can concoct? Tired of buying dozens of splat books to figure out how to make the character you really want to play? Maybe you'd like Fantasy HERO. Try this book and the adventure provided. You can even use these provided characters so you can jump right in and learn how the game works before you dive in and create the character you've always wanted to play!  
The "what is a Role Playing Game" blurb in every RPG book doesn't have to be more than a page or two. There could even be two blurbs: if you've never played before, go to page 1. If you have, but have never played HERO before, go to page 2. That's enough to get them up to speed. They should be catchy and well-written enough to spark the imagination. Let's move on into how to play the game, assuming you've survived the one page of reading and are still interested in learning how this all works. If you aren't interested enough by the end of one page, then we were never gonna get those players anyway.

It is one thing to "allow" customisation (not sure how they could stop me once I had the rulebooks bought!) and another to facilitate it.
 
Yup, D&D has books you can buy with other pre-prepared stuff in it. 
 
What if I wanted a magic missile that did 1D6 damage?  or 1d4+2 damage?  What level would the spell be?  It is not truly customisable as there are far too many black boxes.  Even though I could customise it, it was purely eyeballing based on experience.  HERO provides a truly customisable experience as the black boxes have mostly been removed.  Most systems have their own black boxes that limit the ability of the GM to really customise options and there One Book Games that we are talking about would introduce their own black boxes.  What would make them different is that the engine within which they were designed is open source and replicable.  Indeed, there should also be a design sheet somewhere online that laid out the detail of those black boxes (even if the majority of people never looked or even wanted to look inside).
 
I would have regular reminders in such books to players and GMs that all the features of the game could be modified using the HERO Toolkit if they wanted to change their game to better suit their group.
 
Doc
 
 

I think something important to bare in mind, even a 'straight jacket' like class and race game like D&D has been allowing custimization for years. Every since 2nd edition, they've allowed tweaks and choices that meaningfully impact that kind of characters you play (kits), and of course this ballooned in 3.X and continued in 4th and 5th. Players may not be able to build anything they want, but there are so many options, it's not difficult to build something approximating the image they have in their minds eye. Also by presenting cool bits to chop and change around, it gives players options that 'next time I want to play an X, Y, or Z'. I think Killer Shrike's online Hero campaign is actually an excellent example of this...he's created so many magic systems and character types in his Urban Fantasy game, that if I bought it as a book I would be drooling at the opportunity to play all the different builds. I don't know why, but for me at least, this is more engaging than knowing ahead of time I could just make anything I want. And I'd say I'm not alone in this, based on the success of games that do just this. 
 
I only mention this because a lot of people who seem to be talking about the surperiority of HERO over D&D and it's ilk seem to forget or be unaware that they long since moved away from 1E's 'every fighter is the same except for their magic items' model. Note, I'm not saying this about you Hugh, just your first comment reminded me that the needle has shifted a loooong way since 1E, even if the 'build it yourself' mechanic isn't present. 
 
So a PbHS approach could work by presenting new and fun options, pre-created for players to pick from, but let's not pretend that the competition is still treading the same ground it did 40 years ago. 

Yes, exactly. I mentioned the line of Powered by the Apocalypse books earlier as a fantastic model for what I'm thinking. There are so many PbtA games out there, and once someone learns one they've basically learned the formula for each game, although there are different applications of the rules for each game. You don't need to buy the Apocalypse World rules to play any of the other games, nor should you have to. But if you want to make a game that is powered by those rules, you can build it yourself based on the model, and even get the licensing to have it marketed as a PbtA game on their web site. 
 
Seems like a toolbox like HERO System could benefit from a similar approach. It actually did something like this in the '80s. It seems totally doable, and perhaps even in line with how the market is driven nowadays. 

I agree that it's possible . . . for an experienced player who knows how to fiddle with the dials. We can build a game similar to 2e in build complexity, but I don't expect a new player to be able to do it. The Completes make almost all of the options available, so knowing which ones to include or exclude already presumes system mastery. I believe that anyone on these forums can do it, but that's not what this particular thread is about. 6e is in fact intimidating because if you don't know all the rules, then someone's going to pop open the book and tell you three different ways that you're wrong. Because those books are full of lots of applications and variations and whatnot. Not only are you now responsible for the core rules, but you need to understand all the options, which ones to include or not, and why, and also contend with other players who may have the books themselves. The Complete books are better, but they are still frameworks, not games. 
 
I say phooey too, but not to the toolbox. I say phooey to expecting new players to have to learn all the stuff right out of the gate. They need to ease into the game, but they need to actually have a game to play before they can ease into learning the complexities of the toolbox (i.e. system mastery) and make their own adjustments. So to run a game of 2e complexity requires someone to actually know how to build the game at 2e levels in the first place. 
 
 
So there's the solution, right? D&D actually has basic rules in a convenient box with some adventures and character sheets and stuff. You can start with very simple rules, and then expand into the larger books. HERO System doesn't have that. And we've all discussed the "rules lite" or "beginner box" thing to death, so I don't want to rehash that. We need to try a new alternative: try producing already-built games that aren't stripped down versions of the rules (basic, lite, beginner's box, or whatever) so that people don't have to learn all the rules in order to decide which ones to include or exclude. That's way beyond what a beginner should be expected to do, even if they are experienced in other systems. 

Speaking for myself only, I have to say that as soon as you call what I've said "crap" you've passed over into "taking it personally" territory. There's no way to say that isn't just plain rude. Just sayin'.
 
For the record, here's what I said:
 
"System mastery" is my point here, not a nominal once-over of the rules that I hope my players make. Hell, I'm still trying to master the 6e rules after years of playing them. The 1e/2e/3e games were easy to learn and to master because they were quite brief. Anyone trying to learn the game today has to wade through a ton of rules, edge cases, extensions and extrapolations to come anywhere near system mastery. This is a serious non-starter for most gamers today. And I'd contend that one shouldn't be teaching the game if they don't have some level of competence with the rules first. Stopping and looking up the rules every time something happens is a sure-fire way to ensure that nobody will ever play again.

Yes! This fits with my experience of things, and whether or not that’s a universal problem, it pretty much sums up what I see as the “problem” in this thread.

I remember those days in the 80s and 90s and part of what made that possible were the rule books being a tiny fraction of the current 6e monstrosities.
 
My first champions boxed set had a softcover rule book (2e I believe).  It was easily digested in an internet-free, cell-phone free weekend.
 
I've read through the 6e rules and honestly I can't possibly expect normal human beings to read through this.  It's just too much.
 
PS:  I run the 6e rules (mostly) for my Saturday game, but I do ALL of the work.  The players tell me what they want and if they can remember how to do attack rolls, skill checks and their combat maneuvers I'm pretty happy.
4th edition was my favorite edition, but it was the upper limit of crunch, imo.

I have been casually reading in the background and I think this is the crux of it. Brian stated previously that he didn't want to trigger an edition war but without going down that path, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the past and present editions. Skimming over a lot of detail, I (as in, in my opinion only) would summarise it like this.
6th Edition (HERO 6E volume 1 and 2) is the best toolkit published by HERO Games so far. Not only does it provide all you need to build your own game but it also provide tons of toolkitting advices; 3rd Edition (and before) is when the best games were published. Champions, Justice Inc, Danger International, Fantasy HERO were all using the same system but only the part of the system that related to their own agenda and alos expressed and presented in a way that made sense to their own paradigm (eg. equipments and vehicles not expressed and powers or characters) 4th Edition was the successful attempt to streamline the system but it also set a subtle trend that I would not recognise for many years after its inception. See 5th below. 5th and 5Er is really when the trend set in by 4th steamrolled full steam; Hero Games stopped producing games (there was a few exceptions) and fully focused on the toolkit or instruction manuals on how to use the toolkit to create our own games. I believe what Brian is aiming at is to use the 6E toolkit to create/publish games like it was in the good old days. A Danfer International game? No need to express equipment as powers or vehicles as characters. They have games stats and a $ value (or even a Resource Point value) and that is it. Want the game to include a broad range of talents? No need to express them with base effect, advanatage (+¾) and limitations (-½). You only need a game effect description and a cost in cp.
 
But that is just the way I see it.  

I think there are plenty of people who have learned using 4e, 5e or even 6e. Many of my players in the 90s were 4e players and only 4e players. They didn't know of the game's existence before they started playing. The same could be said about my current group. However, that said, players were also exposed to the game as part of a setting I designed. So some powers were off limits, and house rules were explained throughout the game as needed. So, in some ways, it ran much like the "Powered by" philosophy. 
 
 
I agree with this to extent as well. 4e Champions had some semblance of a setting within it. Sure, you needed Champions Universe and other books to enhance that setting if you didn't want to put a bunch of work in, but there was some Champions in the  Champions book. And I believe Champions: New Millennium was also an attempt to make such a game with setting built in. If a 7th ed of Hero ever occurred, I believe that going back to that design philosophy may work. 
 
 
It could be. But I believe that there needs to be less restrictions on a product to allow for House Rules and making a game using the Hero System. 

Thanks for summarizing and articulating the point I was meandering towards. This is exactly what I've been trying to say. 
 
The thing that's held me back for so long in teaching and playing any 6e HERO System games is that I was too busy imaging what I could do with all the material that's available rather than actually getting down to business and doing something with it. I never did settle on any complete magic system for Fantasy HERO, but I sure did devour all the sample systems in the genre book! At least Fantasy HERO Complete has the good sense to settle on one magic system. I just wish the book was organized a little better. Anyway, there's plenty of supporting material out there for 6e, just not the applications of it. 
 
I suspect the Hall of Champions is one way to try to alleviate this. Plenty of applications there. But I suspect it's more of a gold mine for us experienced players, and isn't of much use to people just picking up the game. I may be wrong. At least having adventures available is a good start. But I'd rather see one-book games make a comeback, each with their own adventures included, and perhaps advertisements for more in the Hall of Champions. Remember how all the old 3e books advertised each other? One book showed all the other books available, and lots of people got those books to add to the one book they had, and then could home-brew their own versions. Now, one book, for example Action HERO!, could advertise the toolbox and all the other books like the skills, equipment, and martial arts books so people could home-brew their own modifications. People love to be able to reskin their phones to their personal tastes, but I doubt they'd be so keen on it if they had to create their first interface for their phones. So lets provide that first game, and then show all the ways it can be reskinned to suit people's tastes?

Thanks for summarizing and articulating the point I was meandering towards. This is exactly what I've been trying to say. 
 
The thing that's held me back for so long in teaching and playing any 6e HERO System games is that I was too busy imaging what I could do with all the material that's available rather than actually getting down to business and doing something with it. I never did settle on any complete magic system for Fantasy HERO, but I sure did devour all the sample systems in the genre book! At least Fantasy HERO Complete has the good sense to settle on one magic system. I just wish the book was organized a little better. Anyway, there's plenty of supporting material out there for 6e, just not the applications of it. 
 
I suspect the Hall of Champions is one way to try to alleviate this. Plenty of applications there. But I suspect it's more of a gold mine for us experienced players, and isn't of much use to people just picking up the game. I may be wrong. At least having adventures available is a good start. But I'd rather see one-book games make a comeback, each with their own adventures included, and perhaps advertisements for more in the Hall of Champions. Remember how all the old 3e books advertised each other? One book showed all the other books available, and lots of people got those books to add to the one book they had, and then could home-brew their own versions. Now, one book, for example Action HERO!, could advertise the toolbox and all the other books like the skills, equipment, and martial arts books so people could home-brew their own modifications. People love to be able to reskin their phones to their personal tastes, but I doubt they'd be so keen on it if they had to create their first interface for their phones. So lets provide that first game, and then show all the ways it can be reskinned to suit people's tastes?

Thanks for summarizing and articulating the point I was meandering towards. This is exactly what I've been trying to say. 
 
The thing that's held me back for so long in teaching and playing any 6e HERO System games is that I was too busy imaging what I could do with all the material that's available rather than actually getting down to business and doing something with it. I never did settle on any complete magic system for Fantasy HERO, but I sure did devour all the sample systems in the genre book! At least Fantasy HERO Complete has the good sense to settle on one magic system. I just wish the book was organized a little better. Anyway, there's plenty of supporting material out there for 6e, just not the applications of it. 
 
I suspect the Hall of Champions is one way to try to alleviate this. Plenty of applications there. But I suspect it's more of a gold mine for us experienced players, and isn't of much use to people just picking up the game. I may be wrong. At least having adventures available is a good start. But I'd rather see one-book games make a comeback, each with their own adventures included, and perhaps advertisements for more in the Hall of Champions. Remember how all the old 3e books advertised each other? One book showed all the other books available, and lots of people got those books to add to the one book they had, and then could home-brew their own versions. Now, one book, for example Action HERO!, could advertise the toolbox and all the other books like the skills, equipment, and martial arts books so people could home-brew their own modifications. People love to be able to reskin their phones to their personal tastes, but I doubt they'd be so keen on it if they had to create their first interface for their phones. So lets provide that first game, and then show all the ways it can be reskinned to suit people's tastes?

Hi Ninja-Bear, 
There's a lot of stuff packed into your post. I don't want to misunderstand or misconstrue your points, so if I do let me know. It seems like much of what you write is rhetorical summaries of what's been said in a variety of posts. I'm going to take them up in smaller chunks.
 
This is true if you have a GM and a group to learn with. Otherwise, you kinda do have to learn everything at once in order to begin to figure out how to set everything to play a game of some sort. My point: HERO System is generic and universal, so anyone picking up the 6e rules has to make a ton of decisions to even begin the process of figuring out which rules to apply and which to ignore. HERO is great for that type of flexibility, but it's only useful for people who already know the rules fairly well. The Completes aren't necessarily too hard to learn, but they still don't give a newbie many quidelines on how to make their setting, magic/Powers, DC caps, etc. These come from experience, which a rule book just cannot give.
 
I think mosts of us here learned the game in 1e or 2e, and yes it is indeed easier. The games that I frequently cite are 3e games. I'm not looking to reprint anything here. I'm looking to reboot the 3e games that I (and I'm thinking we) loved. I don't want to present them as if they were 2e (actually, 3e) games. You're right: that is really confusing. Instead, I want to update them to 6e, but with all the fat trimmed off so the games are trim, and offer all of the missing elements that today's rulebooks/toolkits/genre books don't include: setting and adventures/campaign ideas baked into the rules as they are presented. By now you're familiar with what I mean: don't present all the rules and then suggest that they can be tweaked to maybe play in a modern action genre. Instead, present the rules as that genre requires. For example, I don't need to present all the Focus limitations on Powers when all we are talking about are guns. I'll just present guns and a brief description of what they do. If you drop it, or are disarmed, we don't need to debate the nature of the Focus, if it fits in with this particular kind of disarm, and all the other various and sundry arguments we see on the Forums all the time. This trimmed down approach will work in any genre, but I simply suggested this one in particular based on the fact that plans for a reboot of Danger International seem to have fizzled. I got my hopes up, and I'd like to see it work. I could pick any genre, I just happened to pick this one.
 
Yeah, I've given up on the "lite" version of the rules. Admittedly, I was biased because I learned to play GURPS through their 32 page rules-lite PDF. It seemed like a great idea, but I don't think it works in the generic and universal HERO System because of the need for the Powers and Modifiers in the core rules. GURPS assumes you'll have their genre guides for whatever you want to play, and probably a GM to shepherd you. HERO doesn't assume this, so doesn't try to present a HERO Lite booklet. Probably for the best. Trying to reduce the rules yet still presenting them as generic and universal is just the wrong approach (I think).
 
The support for 6e is what I'm trying to emphasize here. There's plenty of supporting material already out there for 6e: so many settings and genre books and other resource books that I can't count them all off the top of my head. It's the wrong kind of support. It's the same model as 5e, which didn't exactly kill in the marketplace either.
 
So what kind of support does 6e need? That's what my inquiry is about. I think a one-book game is a great idea, a game "built with the HERO System," as all the 3e games used to say. Except this time it'll be advertised as "built with HERO System 6e." The supporting material is already out there: genre books, new rules, skills and equipment and all sorts of stuff. I'd love for people to be drawn to them, but not be required to have them in order to play. By now I think my position on this is clear. 
 
Maybe 6e needs better setting books, as I suggested earlier, as an alternative to one-book games. Maybe each setting book would take the place of a one-book game by falling back on a genre book (such as Fantasy HERO) and the toolbox to cover all the possibilities, and then dialing everything in for a very specific kind of approach to the genre. I'm good with that as an approach too, but it hasn't been done either. So I'm with you: we need better support for 6e, but it needs to be better than splatting out another setting, or villains book, or Advanced Players Guide III. Those have all been done, and they don't sell to anyone other than us who already love the game.
 
 
As for being a useful approach to drawing in new players to learn the system, or acting as a gateway to HERO System at large, all I can say is that what DOJ is doing now isn't achieving that. Something new must be tried if it's not going to die out with our rapidly aging generation. I don't know what the demographics are for HERO System, but I don't think it's trending downward in the age bracket. I'm all for other people coming up with something better. More power to whoever does it. But it cannot be more of the same. That's already been done for the past 20 years, and it's dying out. More of the same will just leave more inventory to liquidate when DOJ finally goes bankrupt. 
 
I don't think my approach is the inevitable savior for the HERO System. But I am familiar with what's working in the marketplace outside of D&D. I can tell you that FLGSs are running away from Pathfinder because it is releasing everything on PDF. I've been in GAMA trade meetings where they point out that game specifically as the quickest and easiest way to both clear the shelves for inventory that actually sells, and for finding material that actually supports FLGSs. That model won't work in gameshops for much longer. What does seem to work bypasses the FLGSs altogether. As I mentioned above, Powered by the Apocalypse is an ideal model, and it is immensely popular. There are something like 15 or more games based on that system, and they all are inexpensive to produce, have great fanbases, and have great showings at conventions and such because they are quick and easy to learn.
 
Seems like something DOJ could be copying if they really want to promote HERO System as the toolbox that lets people build their own games. Offer a handful of games, such as Action HERO, as examples of what can be done. Draw people in with some convention presence, and maybe some clever advertising (this was touched on waaaay upthread). But we won't know if "we" don't try. No reason it can't be a group effort, at least for the brainstorming part of the effort, which is of course the point of my original post.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I hope I understood your points correctly.

As I ruminate on this, I think we have it backwards.  Hero System 6e does not need support.  It IS support.
 
The problem is that we have all this support - a huge array of rules options, a ton of settings, and character books, and prebuilds and all that stuff, for a huge array of genres.
 
But somewhere along the line, we forgot one key thing - the GAME that all of this material is designed to SUPPORT.
 
Hero is not a game - it is a system with which games can be designed.  It needs the game(s) it is supposed to be supporting - for some reason, we forgot to publish any since some time in the 4e days.  4th Edition Fantasy Hero was a game.  Somewhere between then and 5e, Hero/DoJ stopped making games.
 
 

Okay.
 
Moderator Warning in Effect
First, I apologize for not interjecting in this sooner. I'm so used to patrolling the NGD that I neglected this area.
Folks, I realize that sometimes we feel baited, provoked and more. But please, try not to take that bait. I've said it before, but it is better to just walk away if you can't ignore. For that matter ,if you finds someone particularly patronizing or condescending, I believe you can still set a poster to be ignored. I'll double check on that to be sure.
 
But while I feel like I slipped here not responding decisively or quickly enough before it escalated, I have to put my foot down now. Don't make me lock this thread. SImon and I are reviewing things and more action maybe taken against specific people, but this is general warning for the majority: Let's keep it cool.
 
Thank you for your time to read this. 
 

Let's be clear:  There is no "2e Hero System".  There was 1e Champions, 2e Champions (and some other games), 3e Champions (and some other games) and then 4e Hero System (which was initially bundled with Champions source and genre material as "Champions 4e") which became Hero System 5e and 6e.
 
Brian's Action Hero proposal is probably the closest thing we could ever have to a proposed revision to play like "2e Hero System", as it proposes a 6e version of the very first, 2e, non-Champions Hero System game.  Prior to 4e, Hero published a series of different games using common core mechanics, often modified for the specific game (Danger International had new skills and different Martial Arts, I believe; Justice Inc. presented "weird talents" as pre-built abilities, not a do it yourself powers system to build your own, and Fantasy Hero added some powers and removed others for their Spell system.
 
Prior to 4e, the products were independent games first, system second.  Fantasy Hero presented a magic system, not a "choose your own magic system" textbook with half a dozen examples, none with enough detail to play a game with out of the box.  The first Fantasy Hero allowed you to build a wizard similar to D&D - choose your school(s) of magic and buy spells.  Some were even "higher level" spells in that you needed x points of other spells from that school before you could buy this one.
 
There is precious little difference between "here is a game with all the dials pre-set to emulate 2e" and "toolkitting 6e to play like 2e".
 
The difference between learning 6e and 2e falls largely on the GM.  2e did not say "maybe you have knockback or perhaps knockdown or you could have nothing" and "perhaps you want some or all of hit locations, and impairing/disabling wounds, and bleeding rules, and shock from injuries" and so on.  It had Knockback (no other options, although I suppose you could just ignore those rules) and there were no hit locations, critical hits, impairing, disabling, bleeding, shock...  With all the dials set, the GM can build Ogre, some thugs and a little old lady, the players can build Starburst and Crusader, we draw the bank on the battlemat and we're ready to play.
 
But Starburst's player did not have to ask "Um...multipower is a Yield Sign - can we have those in this game?  Is mine OK?"  That dial was already set.
 
 
There was a ton of support for 5e.  Genre books, sub-genre books, sample power books, setting books, what have you.  How did that work out?  Back in the 1e - 4e days, Hero was a major player in the RPG field.  And it produced games powered by a system, not a system you could use to build your own games.  Was it just a coincidence that the shift from "games with common mechanics" to "mechanics you can use to build a game" correlated with diminished interest and sales?
 
I think Action Hero may bring some players into the full Hero system.  Maybe it will pave the way for other Hero-Powered games (just like Mutants and Masterminds got a boost out of the gate because it was d20, and you already know how to play d20, so here are the tweaks we made - even though its rules differ radically in many respects from d20, it had that starting point of familiarity).  And maybe it will get some subset of players - the ones that really want to tinker with the system, or even build their own game ("well, it's kind of an Action Hero homebrew, in a post-apocalypse setting, with mutants and stuff").
 
To me, Hero would be better served using its IP to produce things people want to buy (or licensing its IP to people who want to produce those things) than fading away, or clinging to a model which the marketplace has not embraced.
 
Oh, and IIRC, 2e had Viper's Nest, so it was most definitely playable out of the box.  1e had a sample of combat in a bank against Ogre, and a few villains, but no specific scenarios.  A sample multi-part adventure which tells the GM "here are the rules we're focusing on learning and using in this part" would be ideal.  For Action Hero, maybe that includes a brawl, a gunfight, some investigation and interaction...depending on what else goes in, maybe a car chase; a combat scene in an unusual environment.  Pick a cool, well-known action movie scene and file off the serial numbers.
 
 
This - exactly this.  Hero can simulate almost anything, but a game focused on specifically simulating one genre can easily have mechanics much more suited to emulating that genre, at the cost of less ability to emulate others.

I just had a sit-down with my buddy who has been going with me to Origins the last 4 years, and he's the one who brought up the virus issue. It hadn't even registered in my mind yet, but he's right for me to worry. We aging infirms need to stick together. Maybe we should start our own convention, and reserve an entire hospital floor so we can play worry-free!

Sure; I get that.
 
My suggestion was intended to bridge the gap between "let's do something complete" and "what about the Powers section?  People need that to continue their game and fill it with stuff."
 
That's all.
 
I'm with Brian:  I found the complete games much more enjoyable than an undefined system.  Certainly I love my world building, but I don't always have time to do it, and sometimes I just want to play in this little area right here, you know?