Scott Ruggels

The Current "No Magic" fantasy game, is centered on Barbarians. They are temperate herd following nomads, that do trade with the empires they interact with. The current group have been hired as caravan guards, and they have run up against hostile horse nomads.  That's the fight.  In the background, barbarians have integrated into the  the various empires after a couple of generations of worshipping the Imperial gods, and becoming sedentary.  It happens in waves.   The Caravanners are happy to have them as they have better skills for being out in the forests and grasslands they are traversing. They are also a talkative bunch.
 

Oh, we can blame those. However they do fit for D.I. and F.H. I think it was the Amalgamation into Champions that was possibly the problem. Too much Realism into the Superhero Genre? Maybe?
 

Sure.
 In the D&D Context, it is about how the various races in the 2014 Players Handbook have  Pluses and minuses to various stats based on the race the player chooses.  Humans don't modify their stats, but get two Feats.  Other races just get one Feat, but have adjustments to their stats. It also sets the general alignment charts for Non- Player Races, and Monsters. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything was the first attempt to remove that, by allowing all races to be modified, and also not bound by the alignment table. As such they want to remove the meta of choosing the best race for the classes, so that anyone can be a druid, or an Artificer, or a Ranger.  The New book is trying to push things further, by making things more P.C.  Recent Adventures like Candlekeep Mysteries, and the new one about the Magic School, are very much about relationships, rather than combat. The Magic School one, even had a Prom.

Source:
https://www.polygon.com/22883750/dnd-monsters-of-the-multiverse-6e?fbclid=IwAR3_OnWWq6mrnJg3qYhaIWon4Am5uJW_FyQJkENXks0AsMCgqVHdZrSCx_U
That Bloat isn't just skills. It's also some powers in 6th Edition, and other powers simplification was just awkward, like "Barrier".

Shadowcat combined my two favorite things and gave us an official Traveller HERO.
 
On the strength of my appreciation for that alone-- and I probably shouldn't admit this publicly, but oh well-- I will blindly buy anything with his name on it.  Shadowcat rocks.
 
 

No.
 
Those games,were stand-alone games, and that was how those games worked.  There was no bloat because there was no "way we did it before."  Of course, there would be no "way we do it this time" because there was no new "this time:"  HERO Games consolidated everything into Champions--  okay. Sorry:  4e.  
 
4e had lqrge grqnd overskills and much mire specialized smaller skills _and_ had the template for making your own skills (and some awkwardness about how they would differ if they were background ir professional or youTube hobbies or whatever).
 
What it did _not_ have was any sort of useful guidance on the differences of effect and requirement skikls had based on hiw broad you wanted them, any suggestions about when to specify or why you might want or not want to, and on and on-
 
So personally, as much fun as it was, I blame 4e for not taking the time to include at least a short discussion on this- or even doing so in any of the genre books, where specificity is one of the keys to the feel of the game.  At any rate, I feel 4e started this tradition--
 
A proud tradition that carries on even into today"s thousand-plus pages of rules- rules that specify even exactly how each individual power modifier must interact with each power, each other, and modified powers; rules upon rules for corner cases and mandates and power constructs to replace modified powers and modified powers to replace power constructs and guidelines for rolling your own there,too.  We,even have rules that can replace other rules in the same set of rules!
 
But to this day we don't have any discussion of the value or ramifications of the proudly-open-ended skill system. 
 
 

Sure.
 In the D&D Context, it is about how the various races in the 2014 Players Handbook have  Pluses and minuses to various stats based on the race the player chooses.  Humans don't modify their stats, but get two Feats.  Other races just get one Feat, but have adjustments to their stats. It also sets the general alignment charts for Non- Player Races, and Monsters. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything was the first attempt to remove that, by allowing all races to be modified, and also not bound by the alignment table. As such they want to remove the meta of choosing the best race for the classes, so that anyone can be a druid, or an Artificer, or a Ranger.  The New book is trying to push things further, by making things more P.C.  Recent Adventures like Candlekeep Mysteries, and the new one about the Magic School, are very much about relationships, rather than combat. The Magic School one, even had a Prom.

Source:
https://www.polygon.com/22883750/dnd-monsters-of-the-multiverse-6e?fbclid=IwAR3_OnWWq6mrnJg3qYhaIWon4Am5uJW_FyQJkENXks0AsMCgqVHdZrSCx_U
That Bloat isn't just skills. It's also some powers in 6th Edition, and other powers simplification was just awkward, like "Barrier".

I have had a lot of characters like this.  The secret is to give them enough intelligence, and skills to make a roll or two when not fighting. But I have also underspent on characters just to reduce the number of disadvantages I would have to take. In fact my most favoritest character started at 241 points for a 250 point game.  Thanks again for the write up.
 

It's been documented:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637580991
 

I an currently laying two games of D&D 5e, on th weekends. Two different campaigns and GMs, but an overlap of players. D&D 5e, ad is currently is very streamlined, with not a lot of options, and is simpler than 3.5. The problem I have is that because no one was running Hero when the CCP Virus hit, none of the online options other than Tabletop Simulator, currently run it well, Until  the Roll20 effort finally bore fruit just before Christmas.   However about 5e, is that you won't like it, as it's D&D with races and classes, and levels. The arge population of normies out there was attracted to it, because of the Virus, and it was easy to run online.  I don't have the bandwidth at the moment to run much of anything, but some of the D&D players want me to run Cyberpunk Red, because I know the rules fairly well. I'd like to run Hero, but there is a lot of resistance to it.  As for the D&D games, well WoTC is making D&D more unattractive with it's hard progressive push in dismantling Racial Essentialism from the game, and introducing a lot of (to me, unattractive non- Combat situations). I am half tempted to write up a Celebration of Colonialism 5e adventure, just for spite.

I an currently laying two games of D&D 5e, on th weekends. Two different campaigns and GMs, but an overlap of players. D&D 5e, ad is currently is very streamlined, with not a lot of options, and is simpler than 3.5. The problem I have is that because no one was running Hero when the CCP Virus hit, none of the online options other than Tabletop Simulator, currently run it well, Until  the Roll20 effort finally bore fruit just before Christmas.   However about 5e, is that you won't like it, as it's D&D with races and classes, and levels. The arge population of normies out there was attracted to it, because of the Virus, and it was easy to run online.  I don't have the bandwidth at the moment to run much of anything, but some of the D&D players want me to run Cyberpunk Red, because I know the rules fairly well. I'd like to run Hero, but there is a lot of resistance to it.  As for the D&D games, well WoTC is making D&D more unattractive with it's hard progressive push in dismantling Racial Essentialism from the game, and introducing a lot of (to me, unattractive non- Combat situations). I am half tempted to write up a Celebration of Colonialism 5e adventure, just for spite.

This is one of my biggest complaint about editions after 4th, where skills became a vicious point sink, because of the specialization.  1st Edition: Physician 14 or less.  3rd Edition: Medic : 11 or less, Surgeon 11or less. 4th Edition  Medic 11 or less, Pharmacology 11 or less, Surgeon 11 or less.  6th Edition: General Medicine 8 or less Pharmacology 8 or less. Trauma medicine 11 or less, Thoracic Surgery 11 or less, Cardio Vascular Catheterization 11 or less, Teamwork 13 or less.  It gets expensive.  It's that specialization that just became a point sink, and detracted from the  feeling of "Competence" that player characters had in previous editions. There is I think too much detail past 4th edition. and separating figured characteristics was not friendly to new players. THe figured demopnstrated to them what was important in the gem, which was CON, STR, and DEX. Without that, a lot of folks end up unintentionally building glass cannons.

I think there's a good middle ground for skills between 3rd and 6th.  You can get by with PS: Physician and Paramedics, all the rest is just window dressing.  The problem is the dial downs in stuff like Gambling and Survival.  Do you really need different skills for Baccarat and Craps?  I get that survival skills vary from jungle and forest and ocean but... in terms of game play and just having fun its not really adding anything to the game to break it down that specifically.

Champions : Return To Edge City : Beyond the Valley of the DoLs
Scooter, despite having a huge stack of unspent XP, also has fewer points in Disadvantages than the other PCs.

The Magus OoC: From a certain point of view, Scooter has his life more together than anybody else in the team.
GM: Despite being the bouncer at a titty bar.

Scooter HAS been practicing some useful stuff, such as accurate Leaping, and the Disguise Skill.

The Magus OoC: That’s not Hero Shrew, that’s Normal Shrew!

Hardlight OoC: I’ll call my Skill Level upgrade ‘Slightly Less Incompetent’

GM: Scooter can get a motorised scooter: And join the Vespa Vermin.
Flux: Now there’s a motorcycle gang the city is missing.

We head to the old cemetery, intending to arrest anybody who shows up, especially if they’re VIPER agents. We have a lot of questions about the situation, including ‘If a vampire joins the Daughters of Lilith do they still have to get the fangs implanted?’.

Unfortunately, The Magus (and Scooter to a lesser degree) botch our Stealth checks at the cemetery.

Hero Shrew: Too distracted by all the free supplies available?
The Magus: No. I keep getting flashbacks.

Hero Shrew OoC: I probably should have tunneled under the cemetery and dragged them into the graves from underground.
The Magus OoC: The problem there is all the human remains.
Flux OoC: You’ll bump into something, and burst out of the ground yelling ‘OMG, I just saw Michael Jackson’
Hero Shrew OoC: Ah, so that’s why we failed the Stealth check.

The Magus having a spectacular allergic reaction to holy ground is also a problem. But it’s the way the two Daughters on guard apparently smell Scooter coming that’s the biggest issue - a bit of a surprise when they’re supposed to be basically human. Scooter attempts to get behind them by tunneling underground - and when the Daughters find what looks like a freshly emptied grave, they panic and flee for the cemetery exits. Scooter had made a successful Presence attack, by accident. Unfortunately it looks like they made a call to their boss about the unexpected zombie situation, and the meeting we were there to crash is promptly cancelled.

Flux gets to work investigating the VIPER agent’s online presence - on top of everything else, she makes an annual trip to Wisconsin.

Hero Shrew: Undersconsin!
Flux: No. We don’t want to die.

We locate and stake-out their next meeting, in a children’s playground. Happily there aren’t any kids around at this hour - that could get messy.

Flux: Honestly if there were a bunch of kids hanging around the playground at midnight I’d be more freaked out than I am with all the vampires.

We also learn that the Spinnerette network the Daughters of Lilith answer to is a bit upset by the gang’s initiative, and they’ve sent some rollerskaters that go by the moniker of The Cherry Bombs to remonstrate. There’s also a news blimp perfectly positioned to film whatever happens next.

The Magus calls up an illusion of thick fog, and the other leap into action to protect the Daughters from likely assassination. And hopefully nab that VIPER rep. The Daughters DO go down suspiciously easy when the Magus follows up with a STUN attack to stop them running away under their own steam. And then the power-armoured SWAT team show up.

GM: It’s something you need to know when dealing with this kind of security - if they don’t recognise you and you seem to be involved in whatever is going on, you’re going down to the station in cuffs. It’s called Securing The Scene.

The Magus: Their deployment vehicle is currently stuck on one of the access paths because nobody gave him the key to this bollard.

Whatever happens, it looks like we’ll need to deal with the Spinnerette Network once and for all.

The Magus: They ARE getting a little too murdery.

Happily, hitting the keyboards turns up some interesting information - such as the suspicious way the Spinnerets seem to get out of police trouble a lot faster than anybody else. It seems to be a systemic issue too - if it’s a conspiracy the entire ECPD would have to be involved. Something appears to be moving electronic records around without leaving a trace.

The Magus: Cyberpathy - or Flux is moonlighting.

Since the only thing that can protect against a cyberpath is another cyberpath, it’s probably a problem that the ECPD doesn’t have any technomancers on the payroll.

The Magus: I did find traces of another technomancer working in Edge City.
Flux: .. what?
GM: That might be the first time you’ve actually told Flux that.
The Magus: I think I mentioned in passing as part of a larger infodump. Pretty sure I added a note to the blackboard back at our base.

It is interesting to note that the Spinnerets keep their prostituion income stream entirely separate from their infobrokering.

GM: You pay for discretion.
Fireflash: What happens in Edge City stays in Edge City.

Hardlight, investigating the actual information hardware, finds some peculiar residue on the nodes.

Hardlight: .. I have no idea what this is.
Hero Shrew: Special computer grease to make the electrons go faster?

Hardlight uses his sensory suite to look at the stuff at a microscopic level - weirdly, it seems to have the same texture all the way down. Flux pokes the stuff in the base lab, but it’s not until he tests its occult properties that he gets any results.

Flux: Son of a B****.

It’s ectoplasm.

Flux: Just a minute, I need to go grab a toaster.
Hardlight: And play some music?

Apparently it’s some kind of astral residue. But not magical. Our more mystically inclined members eventually determine that somebody is making small astral portals to run their connections through. And the connections are very… spidery. As is the guardian spirit they left on duty.

The Magus: Huh. So that’s a thing.

They REALLY shouldn’t be hanging out this close to the material plane. We really need to shut the Spinnerets and their subsidiary gangs down. While rounding up their street level members might be doable, actually finding laws to arrest the leaders under might be trickier, assuming we can even get through their layers of sacrificial mooks. Perhaps we should target their unlicensed drinking establishments, preferably when they have lots of customers to scare off. Time for a montage - with lots of press coverage and all due credit to the ECPD Anti-gang Unit (their Internal Affairs and Cybercrime units are busy enough trying to figure out what the Spinnerets have done to their computer system)

Flux: With any luck there’ll be underage drinking - then we can really nail them to the wall.

It probably helps that Scooter already knew where all the illegal dives were, although he had never done anything about them. Just as well he doesn’t work at the Collar Club anymore, or retaliation would seem likely.

Despite actually catching one of the Daughters of Lilith leaders at one of the raids, they somehow escaped without anybody seeing how. Still, each lesser arrest we make provides a point to magically track back to their leadership. So it’s rather unfortunate that when we do, Cassiana and her lieutenants are lying in a pool of blood, and are covered in spiders. And the cloud swirling around the room is more spiders.

Hardlight: Magus. Please teleport me out again, Right now.
The Magus: Oh please, there’s no way they can get through your shield.
Hardlight: I’m still turning the armour way up!

Fireflash blasts the room, to kill as many of the spiders as she can, and calls an ambulance for the Daughters of Lilith, and the Port Authority Biohazard team to deal with any remaining spiders.

Fireflash: We do NOT want Brazilian Wandering Spiders spreading into California!

It’s a bit odd that Cassiana had the accoutrements of a vampire hunter when we found her - was she expecting competition? And sniffing around (literally in Scooter's case) what at first appears to be a dosshouse is actually a bolthole. We’ll probably have to wait for Cassiana to wake up to find out what she was actually up to - unless her real name Theodosia Lathrum is relevant. There was certainly a lineage of vampire hunters going by that moniker.

Fireflash: The historical Theodosia was co-emperor of Byzantium with Justinian the First.
Hero Shrew: Wife and daughter of Aaron Burr, too.
Hardlight: What?
Hero Shrew: Hey, I listen to music, ok?
Hardlight: Aaron Burr’s wife was a vampire hunter?

But what’s with all the spiders?

The Magus: The only thing that can save us now is Bee-man’s edgier cousin, Tarantula Hawk Man.

GM: F*** me, I still haven’t come up with a name for these things. Because I’m not calling them Tarantuloids.
Hero Shrew’s player: Pseudotarantuloids.
GM: They’re native to the astral plane
Hero Shrew’s player: Tarantulpas.
GM: And they’re not earth spiders because they have ten limbs.
Flux’s player: Gegenees.
GM: But those mythical six-armed giants are already in Champions.
Flux’s player: They are? Ah well - it’s about 50-50 odds with anything mythological and Champions.
Hero Shrew player: Ungolians.

According to some incredibly pretentious Victorian era occult tomes, these things are apparently scavengers that usually reside in the lower astral levels. That might explain why they seem to be sealing up the breaches in the astral veil.

The Magus: Shall we follow these cables back to their origin point?
Hero Shrew: I’m willing - just shove me through one of these holes and we’ll see what happens.
The Magus: You’re too big.
Hardlight: And probably too physical.

GM: I question the wisdom of implanting an alien energy source in your neck.
Hardlight: I keep telling you, I didn’t do it to myself! I fell down a well and woke up with it inside me!
The Magus: I heard the same story in the Emergency Department last week.
GM: Jack was nimble, Jack was quick, The doctor at the emergency department said “Jack did WHAT with a candlestick?”

The Magus can teleport us all to the Astral, which is half-full of webbing, but if anything happens to him we’re screwed. And we’re probably doomed anyway thanks to Hardlight’s Weirdness Magnet, which apparently rates as ‘Greatly Impairing’

The Magus: So, is everybody ready to fight spider people?
Hero Shrew: I am! Does that book say whether they’re edible?
The Magus: They’re Camel-spider people.
Flux: THAT MAKES IT WORSE
The Magus: I did say that unless we can find Tarantula Hawk-man we have to handle this ourselves.
Hardlight: I’m half expecting Scooter to show up in a costume with a burning can of insecticide as a logo.
Hero Shrew: That’s a good idea actually - any aerosol cans and cigarette lighters handy?
GM: … OK, sure.
Hardlight: It IS a very Scooter Solution.

The Tarantuloids (apparently called Uttu) immediately draw weapons and advance when we transition over. And we haven’t even messed with their stuff yet.

Hardlight’s Player: I try to find some spider-themed assets for Tabletop Simulator and the first thing I find is a Femboy Spider Token.
GM: Welcome to the Internet where Everything Is Awful.

The Magus: Well, I’d better try and negotiate before anybody gets set on fire… Hail, fellow sentients! What are you doing so close to the material planes?
Uttu: We Guard! You Leave!
Flux: Is it OK if we leave that way? *pointing to the direction the cable is heading*
The Magus: And who are you guarding it for?
Uttu: She!
Hardlight: Well, at least we know their assumed gender. Uh, She who?
Uttu: SHE!
Fireflash: She Who Must Not Be Named?
Flux: We seem to be having some translation difficulties…
GM: With apologies to H. Rider Haggard.
Uttu: We follow SHE! SHE provides!
Flux: Can talk to her? Uh, She?
Uttu: SHE talks to who She wishes!

The Magus intimidates them enough to at least send a message.

Hero Shrew: Does She sell seashells?
Hardlight: I’m half-expecting She to be short for Shelob.
Uttu: *in slow English* She. Says. She Will Send. Emmi-sary. Asks. Who You?
The Magus: The Magus.
Uttu: She. Says. Crap.

At least we get an address - in the middle of Spinnerets territory.

Hardlight: I pull out my freeweb device. Wait, no signal.
GM: Actually you do have a signal. What???
Flux: Ok Mr Tech Genius, before we leave, find out what the hell that’s connecting to.

The Spinnerets emissary has a fancy sword and crucifix earrings

Hero Shrew: I wonder if the earrings are significant.
GM: Probably - the powered in the Champions universe are generally pretty careful with the symbols of Higher Powers.
Hardlight: Well, I’m going to shut up and not say anything - foot-in-mouth and all. So go on you two, get talking.

The Emissary is pretty confident that the holes in the astral veil aren’t a problem, because they have a way to stabilise them. The Magus points out that that does nothing about the way the Spinnerets are rewriting police records at will. The Emissary makes an offer on She’s behalf - if we let them withdraw the connections in question (they’re not much use to She now we know about them) the Spinnerets will extend us a line of credit.

Hardlight: This is one of those moral quandaries, isn’t it.

The Magus calls the rest of us over to join the conversation.

Hero Shrew: Cool sword.
The Emissary: Thankyou.
Flux: So, Magus, I see you’re not dead.
The Magus: Did you expect me to be?
Flux: *waggles hand* eh.

The Emissary: I speak for She. I listen and She hears.
The Magus: And She occasionally swears to the Uttu.

Hardlight: I’m guessing this line of credit isn’t monetary.
The Emissary: Of course not.
Flux: My apologies, he doesn’t understand metaphors.
Hardlight OoC: No I don't understand metaphors, that’s the whole POINT of my character!

So, if we choose to ignore the murder and attempted murder of the Daughters of Lilith, or at least put it down to internal gang politics, we can at least stop the Spinnerets from messing with the ECPD data systems, and can get some favours from She in future.

The Magus: Admittedly it’s a lot harder to pin the murders on them.

The Emissary: Do we have any other business?
Hero Shrew: Are there any giant edible bugs in the Astral Plane?
Hardlight: What????
The Emissary: I don’t know.

The Magus recognises the Emissary’s weapon too - the Sword of God’s Word, that Separates Truth From Lie.

GM: I need a word, not antediluvian, that’s specifically The Flood, but basically prehuman..
Hero Shrew: Pre-Adamite.
GM: The sword is Pre-Adamite.
Hardlight: Freaky.
GM: Says the person who’s bonded to a pre-Adamite artefact.

Hero Shrew: I’d like to know which supervillains they’ve been cleaning up records for.
The Emissary: That’s confidential.
Hero Shrew: What’s the deal with Undersconsin?
Hardlight: SCOOTER
The Emissary: ...She has no information on Undersconsin.

GM: This is all worth 7 XP and two favours from the Spinnerets.
The Magus: For not burning the house down.

GM: I hope you didn’t find that too frustrating?
Hardlight OoC: No, not fighting is just as good as fighting, most of the time.
Hero Shrew OoC: Hey! Fighting is the only thing I’m good at!
GM: No it isn’t! Half the time you’re the only person who figures out what’s actually happening, because you work at street level.
Hero Shrew OoC: Eh, tell me that, I’m having increasing questions about my self worth lately.
Flux: Don’t worry, we’ll get you a cave so you can spend a few weeks brooding with the bats and getting horribly damp and s*** on. I mean seriously, that’s a terrible place for a base. And he goes and fills it with computers.
Hardlight: The first thing he installed was good HVAC.

The "communist states", all have to go through a segment of time as "Socialist States" until such time as the state can dissolve itself and turn over the reins of power to The New Soviet Man.
 
Xi's anti-corruption efforts were mostly to remove his rivals, and now his kneecapping of the Chinese economy is to remove alternate centers of power. But the problem is that, like most dictators, he has a poor understanding of economics.  I feel really bad for the Hong Kongers. I had relatives working in Hong Kong for various companies, but they all moved out, leaving friends behind , and they are not happy about it.  (My mother's side of the family, and I , have been very anti-communist).

This is one of my biggest complaint about editions after 4th, where skills became a vicious point sink, because of the specialization.  1st Edition: Physician 14 or less.  3rd Edition: Medic : 11 or less, Surgeon 11or less. 4th Edition  Medic 11 or less, Pharmacology 11 or less, Surgeon 11 or less.  6th Edition: General Medicine 8 or less Pharmacology 8 or less. Trauma medicine 11 or less, Thoracic Surgery 11 or less, Cardio Vascular Catheterization 11 or less, Teamwork 13 or less.  It gets expensive.  It's that specialization that just became a point sink, and detracted from the  feeling of "Competence" that player characters had in previous editions. There is I think too much detail past 4th edition. and separating figured characteristics was not friendly to new players. THe figured demopnstrated to them what was important in the gem, which was CON, STR, and DEX. Without that, a lot of folks end up unintentionally building glass cannons.

I started with 1st, with the typewriter-looking font, but by the time I got to play it, 2nd was out, then 3rd by the time I got to play in regular games.
By then, GMs I gamed with were mixing skills &c from the other Hero games as well, and it was messy.
 
4e, the BBB, feels like the definitive edition that brought it all together.
 
But even with the BBB, it seemed like skills were getting out of hand, and it was taking far too many points to just be generally competent at whatever throwaway background or secret id you might have.
5th seemed even worse that way,  what I've seen of 6th looks to be far beyond the pale.
 
Sometimes I think even the small handful of skills in 1st would be preferable.

That is what Champions Begins is, as a first stage.  I want a basic Champions Campaign book out there too, something people can grab and run your standard Bronze Age game with.  A base, some bad guys, some NPCs, a larger story arc, prepared character stories you can plug into most PC complications, and a series of related adventures and such for the GM to run a campaign with.  
 
Note, this works best if there are a lot of Champions adventures already out there to run, that can be referenced.

I tend to refer to my concoction as 2e jet.
 
It hearkens back to a lot of Japanese fighting games in the late 80s and 90s.
 
 

In addition I would argue that Hero (any version) needs guidance/limits. 
Hero the game system gives the players and GM's unlimited ability to build stuff. 
To an RPG player from virtually any other system and any new to RPG beginners, unlimited options breaks the game for them.  There is a thing called option overload.
 
A set of guidelines or "rules" defining how things are bought and various limits would give the new player a definitive starting point.  A reference to base decisions on. 
Once they get the hang of it, then they can easily ignore them and build their own world. 
 
 
 
 
 

4th was the fun edition. The BBB was slot of fun, we played the heck out of it. for years and years til life got in the way.
 
Collected 5th and 6th. But when we go back its going back, it will be 4th with 5th and 6th rules mixed in. 6th might have cleaned up slot of rules, but it feels dry and lacks the fun factor 4th had.

My preferred edition is what I call 4e+. It is 4e with stuff cherry picked from 5eR.

I am a completionist and a collecta'holic so I have pretty much everything available in PDF and hard-copies of everything 3rd through 6th.  I have most of 1st and 2nd, but there are some holes I can't fill. 
 
For me I had the most fun with 4th, but have actually played more 5th, well...5thR hybrid .
 
While I can't really point at exactly the reason I never was able to enjoy 6th.  Too many game traits that I found very useful and comfortable were dropped.  I am not opening the great debate again, but one of the changes was the loss of figured stats.  That and other changes fundamentally changed the "feel" and "approach" of playing the game for me.  A change I could never get past. 
 
Objectively, there is very little difference in the play of various versions of the game.   Most of the differences in the versions aimed at the build rules, or at least the ones that stand out to me.
 
Right now I am concentrating on using 5thR.  I was able to load up on many 5th edition books including 6 copies each of the 5thR Character Creation Handbook,  Combat Handbook and the Resource Kit.  This means that we are not shackled to share one or two rules books during character creation or during play.   Of course I have recently located two like new 5thR core rulebooks bringing me up to 6 there too.  I only have 2 Sidekick Revised.  I'd like to find enough for a full set of 6, but not having any luck.
 
6 is my magic number.  I find my sweet spot for running a game is 3-5 players.  So 6 copies means everyone, including me, can have a book during play. 
 
I don't run a table if there are devices at it.  Through all the excuses all device means is that we will be continually wasting time because of distractions. From texting to typing "something important" into the laptop. 

4e was a support sweet spot for me, just because the books were coming out at a rate I could afford.  Considering the difference between what I earned then versus what I earn now, that seems to suggest a lack of support material, but honestly, given all the third-party support during 2-4 e and the genre supplements, etc, there was a _lot_ of material.
 
The machine gun rate of publication of 5e and 6e meant from the get go that I was getting the core rukes and one or two supplments that appealed to me, and frankly, I just did manage to do that.   I am willing to state that I am the only person ever to have been in this position, but I am nit willing to accept it as a fact.    
 
fortunately, ten years seems,to be the sweet spot for picking up game material on the second-hand market: most of it is still available and the prices tend to be as low as they will ever get.  Today, I think I have all the 5e stuff except whatever that "you gotta have character"esque book was.  For the purpose of full disclosure, I'm not actually looking for it, either.
 
I missed the Rescue at Karadonna thing for Star HERO, and out of all the material published for 5e, that was the thing I wanted (and still want) most.   I have none of the third party 5e stuff, but I browse about for it every now and again.  If I find it inexpensively enough, I buy it; if I don't, I try again in eight months or so.
 
as far as 6e, I have the blue books and Fantasy HERO and MHI.
 
After reading FH and realizing it was pretty much 5e FH rebooted, I lost almost all interest in getting the othe supplemental books (which, given the early rapid-fire release, was probably for the best anyway: way less frustration at not being able to pick it up when you realize it is probably a 5e book, reskinned.
 
I bought the PDF for the Ultimate Skill (or whatever it was called) for 5e and read that, which saved me the expense of hunting down a paper copy, because there wasnt anything there I found particularly helpful-- now that is _not_ to say it wasnt a good reference for someone newer to the game or not burdened with a surplus of creativity, there was just nothing there of any real value to me.  I wish I had sone the same thing with the pre-built powers books, and for exactly the same reasons.
 
 
As far as a favorite edition to _play_, I drag what few things I have personally felt to be improvements (most of them from 4e, if I stop to think about it) back to 2e.  That was my sweetspot for the tradeoff of simulation and playability.
 
 

Pathfinder: In Hell's Bright Shadow : Calling All Girls
Ayva OoC: Poor Terzo, all these women and he has no chance with any of them.
Terzo OoC: Believe me, I do not actually consider that a problem.
Civilla OoC: I should hope so, you’re my tutor.
Terzo OoC: And that’s just ONE reason.

And Ayva does have a point - between the party, most of the NPCs that are important enough to name, and Thrune’s choice of trusted minions, it seems the script for any future movies about events in Kintargo will easily pass the Bechdel Test. Unless we’re talking about Thrune anyway, but nobody cares what he has between his legs unless it’s an opportunity to remove it with something rusty.

Negotiating the Red Jills is going to be dicey, since they basically count anybody from the Basic Character Races as The Enemy. And Rajira is the only one that is clearly outside their broad definition of ‘human’, and only if she doesn’t try to hide her reptilian heritage.

Civilla: The thing is, Thrune’s agents might actually follow the rules of hospitality and parley if we were having a meeting like this - they’re Evil, but Lawful Evil. But the Jills are probably Chaotic.

Rajira: I was going to say ‘let’s wing it’, but that might offend the Strix.
Civilla: So no triggering language.
Ayva: And nothing about ‘plans being hatched’.
Civilla: You have to be careful about ear jokes around elves too - although given that of the usual races it’s humans that have the weird round ears, that’s kinda strange.

Ayva: I was going to say ‘don’t get cocky’ but there’s the bird language again.

It’s actually Rajira’s suggestion that we don’t meet at the Red Jills’ hideout, in case of Property Damage Escalating To Arson, and the gang agrees.

Rajira: Good evening - I believe we have important matters to discuss.
Scarplume the Strix: Ah yes, the Ghosts of Kintargo.

Apparently our reputation is already spreading.

Scarplume: What makes you think you can change the way the Jills do business?
Rajira: I don’t believe I can - but I believe I can give you a reason to change yourselves.

Rajira: You are a person of power and influence
Scarplume: Power that was hard-won - and you are offering…?
Rajira: An opportunity.

Rajira is persuasive enough, with the eventual intention of making Kintargo a city that won’t look down on the Tieflings simply for being born the way they are.

Rajira: Thrune has drastically under-estimated the power of this city - and its power is the spirit of the people.

Scarplume’s demand is that if we do manage to take over the city, that the Tieflings be treated with full equality and respect.

Rajira: I already do.
Terzo: Liberty! Egality! Fraternity!
Scarplume: I will take you at your word then - but if I hear one whisper that your enterprise is failing, this will not be the last you hear from me.

At least they've agreed to direct their depredations against the occupation, instead of the citizens. Civilla and Rajira are privately skeptical, and after we leave, discuss the likelihood that we’re going to have to eliminate the Jills anyway.

Terzo: Well, that went well.
Civilla: How exactly do you think that went well?
Terzo: They agreed that Tieflings need to be treated with full equality, and that Thrune’s forces are the actual enemy here. I think we have a lot in common.
Civilla: Well, we’ll hold off for now and see how it plays out.
Ayva: At least we can say we tried.

Rexus has good news too - he’s finally finished his translation of the documents we found under the old Livery. A lot of it is tactical advice for defending the city. Some deals with the Secret Order of Archivists, that Rexus’ mother worked for before she died - or rather, before Rexus thought her dead, since he now thinks she may have made it to a previously unsuspected safehouse beneath Hocum’s Phantasmagorium, a tourist-trap museum that’s been closed for well over a decade. In fact there’s a key to the building among the stuff we found.

Terzo: I’m surprised the building hasn’t been repurposed.
Civilla: You’re right - that is suspicious.
Unfortunately, there’s a bunch of Asmodean priests and zombies doing something inside the building, when one of our rebellion cells does some reconnoitering on our behalf.

Terzo: It would appear they thought the building being empty this long was suspicious too.
Rajira: Or they just want to take advantage of it.
Terzo OoC: Maybe they want to open a Starbucks.
Ayva OoC: ‘Local Starbucks Burns Down - Meanwhile Local Cafe Owner Does Roaring Business’
GM: Hell’s Rebels : The True Story Of The Kintargo Coffee Wars

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/808767700515028992/909068946462900264/tumblr_inline_o8ico2kVcn1qao8br_1280.png

Ayva OoC: The People Magazine idea for our printing press has gone through the roof. ‘What do we print in our first issue?’ ‘Well, we didn’t get a second…’

We wait until some of the Asmodean priests swap with a shift change, and jump them. Unfortunately, Rajira botches the strike, and botches the follow-up as well. Fortunately Terzo casts Sleep on the one that didn’t turn invisible and run off.

Terzo: *expressively gestures* Well, what do we do now?
Civilla: We proceed at speed - you could stand to lose a few pounds.

The invisible one is probably going to lose a few pounds too, when Civilla’s Celestial Hyena catches up with her. At least she isn’t going to alert everybody else in the building. Unfortunately, the exhibits in the Fantasmagorium didn’t include animated skunk ape skeletons - the ones that attack us are new. Rexus, who insisted on coming with us, gets himself badly mauled.

Civilla: He shouldn’t be here anyway.
Ayva: He needs training - we can afford that now.
Terzo: What, some kind of spray bottle? ‘Don’t Go. Near. The Monsters’ *squirt*
Civilla OoC: Well, at least if he gets killed there’ll be no-one to contest the sale of the estate…
Ayva OoC: But he is basically Mr Exposition

Having dealt with the White Apes of STREWTH!, we press on to one of the marine themed halls. Unfortunately, none of us have Knowledge (Nature), and none of us see a ‘Do Not Tap The Glass’ sign, so we soon regret Terzo’s curiosity about the tanks.

Civilla: Terzo, how have you survived this long in Chelliax?
Terzo: Natural Charm?
Ayva: He’s well pickled, people think he’s a gherkin.

Ayva: I’m beginning to think this building is cursed.
Civilla: Undead in the last room, undead in this one - I think you’re right.
Ayva OoC: I meant the way that since we came in here, all we’re rolling are 1s and 20s.
GM: And not the way round you need.
Ayva: This didn’t happen to us on the stealth missions.
Civilla OoC: In the stealth missions, it was the other people that needed to make rolls, not us.

Ayva: Terzo? Come here.
Terzo: Yes?
Ayva: DON’T TOUCH STUFF IN THE CURSED MUSEUM.
Terzo: I’m beginning to get that impression, yes.

Terzo: I’m not sure what the problem is, I’ve spent decades poking things I probably shouldn’t and I’m hardly likely to stop now. Although they probably wouldn’t appreciate me calling them ‘things’.

Rajira: Since we don’t want a case of crabs, let’s move on.
Ayva: Hey, a case of crabs, covered in butter, what’s the problem?
Rajira: Depends how you get them.
Ayva: Usually by paying for them - how do you get them?
Terzo: …
Ayva: … we’re talking about two different things, aren’t we?

Civilla: Rexus, if you don’t stay at the end of the party, I will ensure you are the end of your line.

The next room was an insectarium - the last person in here clearly didn’t get the memo about not touching stuff in the cursed museum.

Civilla: This place used to be a tourist trap, now it’s a…
Terzo: Death Trap?

We also find out why the Asmodeans are actually here - they’ve been stripping the building of anything showing historical facts the government of Chelliax doesn’t like. F***ing Redactors. If they’re that easily upset, they must have hated the wax museum in the next room - it certainly upset us. Whatever genius decided to set up a waxwork display of Kintargo’s more infamous serial killers REALLY shouldn’t have used the kind of waxwork guaranteed to get up and continue the subject’s career. On the other hand we can certainly blame the Church of Asmodeus for the zombies - the next lot are Rexus’ family.

Happily, we find the Redactors immediately thereafter and can register our complaints in person.

GM: The redactors call out to their commander as you storm the room, but you murdered their commander in cold blood when you first entered the building.

Terzo’s player: annoying, battery in mouse has finally gone flat
Rajira’s player: Why I prefer wired mice - However, getting the drugs to keep them wired is expensive.

Ayva: Rexus is a bit wired at the moment.
Rajira’s player: How did he get my mouse drugs?

Discovering a hidden entrance to deeper parts of the Fantasmogorium is a problem, because somebody might show up to investigate all the screaming and fireworks at any moment, and we’re already battered and exhausted dealing with the stuff in the main building.

Civilla: F*********** - if we don’t look down there now we won’t get a second chance later
Ayva: This better be a treasure room or we’re going home.

It seems to be a whole complex down here - it looks like we’ll have to camp underground for a few hours to rest, and hope the dottari don’t know about the secret stairwell (and don’t have a shift change before then). This proves optimistic, since the Redactors were apparently here to censor the collected histories of the Sacred Order of Archivists, the group Rexus’ parents belonged to. The archivists were using the Fantasmagorium - or at least, the hidden monastery in the basement - as a base of operations.

Terzo: We’ll have to take Rexus’ family down too.
Civilla: So now we’ll have to sleep in the same room as a pile of corpses - greeeeeat.
Ayva: I’m sure there’s plenty of stuff on these bookshelves to distract you.

Ayva’s player: Before we wander into descriptive text can we get some XP?

Apparently there’s a creature composed entirely of books and paper down here.

Ayva: Ok, Civilla, don’t touch any books.
Book Creature: Halt intruders!
Ayva: Okay.
Book Creature: … I didn’t expect that to work.

Apparently whatever this thing is was summoned to guard the hidden library’s books from any intruders, for at least another 12 days. That doesn’t preclude us from having a good stickybeak around, though, as long as we don’t actually touch anything. And it doesn’t stop us finding out that he was summoned by the Asmodeans to protect the Redactors while they go about their business of rewriting recorded history. The Scrivenite isn’t very happy about that. Which is probably why he’s telling us all the rules of his binding.

Ayva: But the Redactors are all-
Civilla: Shushshushshush! Theoretical question for you, what would you do if the Redactors were all dead?
Scrivenite: The ones upstairs are not my purview - I’m bound to protect the ones in the monastery. I don’t suppose any of you can cast Dismissal?
Rajira: Bit high-level for us.
Scrivenite: Darn it. I really don’t want to fight you.

Scrivenite: As long as you don’t enter the room by THAT DOOR *point point, gesture significantly* and don’t touch any of the books in THIS ROOM, *more gesturing* I’m not obliged to attack you.
Civilla: Okay, okay, I can work with this.
Ayva: What if we dress up as Redactors?
Scrivenite: Well I’ll know it’s you, now - you shouldn’t have said anything.

Civilla: I think I can get us past your restrictions with a bit of pedantry. You won’t let anybody through the door, correct? So what if I open the door, but not go through it, cast Rope Trick, have my associates enter the extradimensional space, teleport into the other room myself, and have everybody climb down again?
Scrivenite: As far as I’m concerned that will work.
Civilla: That’s all we need. I believe you’re a creature of Law? Your summoners were insufficiently precise.


The first few rooms down here contain sleeping Redactors, who sleep infinitely deeper as Rajira goes to them one by one.

Terzo: So, those rooms were empty then?
Rajira: They are now.
Terzo: I choose to interpret that positively.

The next one was actually awake when Rajira stabbed him, and tries to make a run for it - and immediately regrets it, since the rest of the party are waiting in the corridor.

GM: The Redactor stops dead - and you recognise him, Civilla.
Redactor: C-cousin???
Civilla: Cousin? You call yourself family and you’ve taken the mark of the Redactors?
Ayva: I take it that we’re not taking him alive?
Civilla: NO.
Ayva: Well then.
Rajira OoC: For one thing he knows too much.

The Redactor IS an Alazario, and the son of the mayor of the Chellish capitol.

Terzo OoC: I’ll hold off on doing anything - Civilla might be annoyed if I set him on fire.

Civilla summons a monster octopus, and stomps forward to snarl for a bit.

GM: He tries to say something but it’s kind of muffled by tentacles.
Civilla: *sigh* Let him speak.

Apparently Civilla’s cousin, Nicolo, is no happier to be here than Civilla is to see him.

Civilla: Then WHY. ARE YOU. HERE.
Ayva: Daddy dearest?
Civilla: Probably. *sigh*
GM: I’ll be quick because he’s bleeding out a HP a round.
Rajira: Two.

Apparently the Mayor has found himself in deep political trouble, and Civilla’s cousin had to join the Redactors to save the family’s reputation, despite the fact that the Alazarios as a whole are very much against destroying written history. Civilla is now regretting that she’s so family focused - mostly because we can’t leave him here alive, because being the Only Survivor would be highly suspicious. And apparently he HAS been preserving what he can.

Ayva: What’s that saying about ‘better pissing out?’

Terzo tries to patch the cousin up before he bleeds out, then we stash him in the Rope Trick dimension for the time being.

Terzo: Stabbed him rather deeply, didn’t you?
Rajira: I WAS trying to kill him.
Terzo: You with the tentacles, hold this limb tighter.

Apparently the success one of Civilla’s more distant kin had in becoming a pirate king, a few years back, inspired another Alazario to become a pirate. Unfortunately she was also a captain in the Chellish Navy, and the Mayor’s sister, and she decided to target Chellish merchant ships. Well, at least we’ll have someone to mail the cousin to.

The next room has been set up to be the ideal kind of battleground for some quite unpleasant devils. It looks like Rajira and the Chthonic Octopus will be on point - they’re certainly sneakier than the rest of us. For one thing the mollusc can detect living people through walls. Unfortunately it can’t tell WHO is on the other side of the wall, so finding Barzillai Thrune’s bodyguard, Nox, down here, is a bit of a shock. Fortunately she’s not wearing her armour, because she’s asleep. Unfortunately, her hellhound is not.

Rajira attacks Nox first, and kills her instantly with poisoned blades.

GM: She failed ALL HER ROLLS. She was supposed to be the BBEG of this chapter! There’s a whole subchapter here about her as a recurring villain!
Civilla OoC: We could always have left her as the Only Survivor

Rajira: NEED A LITTLE HELP HERE.

Civilla teleports past all the highly suspicious chains, to try and disable what she suspects is something very close to the Lament Configuration - Chain Devils are the last thing we want showing up. The chains alone are nasty enough.

Civilla OoC: Bags not being the first Cenobite. *fails the check* F***.

The head injury she suffers from a chain lashing out of the cube into her face also knocks out her last hour of short-term memory, which is going to make for some interesting conversations later. But at least Ayva succeeds in making the chains vanish.

Terzo cast Grease before the rest of the Redactor Monks show up.

GM: Why don’t these monks - admittedly Lvl 1 monks - have any points in Acrobatics?
Terzo: Because books can’t fight back.
Redactor-who-isn't-Civilla's-Cousin: Magic-users! Retreat to the Garden!
Terzo: They have a garden down here?

Ayva uses Boneshaker on one of the Redactors, which proves fatal.

Civilla: You grabbed him by the skeleton and shook him like an underpaid nanny!
Ayva: I wasn’t expecting it to actually kill him!
Terzo: I thought that was the plan - unless any more of these are your cousins, Civilla?
Civilla: *still amnesiac* What????

Retreating to the garden and preparing spells does the surviving monks no good at all, because Civilla’s octopus attacks them straight out of the floor.

We pursue, leaving Rexus to kill any Redactors we leave merely unconscious behind us.

Rexus: THIS IS FOR MY MOTHER!
Ayva: It’s OK, we can fix it later.
GM: Am I going to have to get THAT post up?
Civilla: It’d have to be True Resurrection - and at the moment Time Is Money.

Civilla follows up her octopus with a Celestial Hyena, and Terzo uses Blistering Invective on the remaining Redactors, and sets them on fire - one survives long enough to dash for the underground river.

Terzo: Get out here and fight, you craven clay-brained canker-blossoms!
Unfortunate Redactor: *on fire on top of everything else, and feeling that the rebels are being a bit unfair* We’re Asmodeans, we’re meant to be evil, what the F***

Civilla’s hyena tears out his belly.

Civilla: Well, that’s all of them.
Ayva: ah….
Terzo: Come over here, dear, you’ll want to sit down for this bit. You know how one of your distant cousins became the Hurricane King?
Civilla: Yesss, but that was hundreds of miles away, what does that have to do with these guys?
Terzo: We’re getting there we’re getting there - anyway, his example encouraged one of your closer relatives to try the same career.
Civilla: OK?
Terzo: Unfortunately she was a captain in the Chellish Navy at the time.
Civilla: What? But her brother is the mayor of - oh.
Rajira: So guess who we have.
Civilla: Her?
Terzo: No - but her nephew had to join the Redactors to protect his family. So he was REALLY lucky you were the first person he saw when he was running away from Rajira.
Civilla: Maybe you should have led with ‘Don’t worry, he’s alive?’

Apparently this place was the Archivists storehouse for Worryingly Magical Stuff. Most of said worryingly magical stuff is missing, including a necklace or amulet, a pair of gloves or bracers, and a reasonably sized rock. Rexus, happily, has a key to the secret compartment behind the shelves, however.

Meanwhile, Rajira goes to check out the garden, presumably to figure out the best place to chop up the bodies and feed them to Civilla’s Chthonic Toads. It’s not like we can just dump them all in the underground stream - that might contaminate someone’s water supply. If we can make all the bodies vanish, we can hopefully make Thrune think his bodyguard and entire order of Redactors have fled the city. A few Convincing Lies spread by the underground press should help.

In a small nook on the other side of the garden, Rajira finds a series of books that magically contain the memories and experiences of some members of the Order of Archivists. Including Rexus’ parents.

Civilla OoC: There’s a reason that we play things the way that we do. We stack our advantages because the dice can **** you in an instant.

At a young age, I was misdiagnosed with allergies to eggs, pork & wheat.
 
HELL NO I'M NOT GIVING ANY UP!
 
(except the gravy)