sentry0

Character building is one of the most fun things to do in this game. Thinking in HERO usually means you can't watch a movie or read a book without mulling over how you would build x or y power/character. It's fun, at least for me. That said, you need someone experienced to guide you through your first build or at least have well articulated campaign expectations around active points, CVs, etc. Pregens are a good way to dodge all that for new players.

I feel your pain, I just picked up a bunch of 5th edition books from the site and paid $45 to ship to Canada

I'm a fan of the roll high approach as it unifies the two basic roll types into one. Arguably, it's more natural to tell someone that more (high) is better...always. I'm also a sucker for systems with difficulty numbers that you have to meet or exceed in general. I like the idea of saying to someone "roll 3d6 and add it to your OCV, beat an 18". KS is right in that 10+DCV is mathematically exactly the same as 11+OCV-3d6 but it's a whole lot easier to calculate for new players.

As someone who came late to the 6th edition party I can totally see the hate for the 2 tomes that make up the core books. When I started to consider moving from 5th to 6th I was completely lost with regards to what books to even buy. I had to ask on these forums for suggestions on what people deemed critical. I'm glad I did because I ended up up getting some really good advice. The single best piece of advice I was given was that all you really need to run is the "Complete" books. I've read both Champions and Fantasy Complete cover to cover, no exaggeration. They are really all you need to run a game, yes they are missing a setting but from a rules standpoint they are all you need. I have the core books as PDFs only because they were unavailable to me from the site store at the time. I open them up once and awhile, usually during character creation or after a game to look up rule I'm not familiar with...that's it. I would never read them cover to cover unless I had them in print anyways but I would only read them cover to cover for my own personal edification not because I felt they were mandatory reading to play. I treat them like Encyclopedias (God, I'm dating myself) in that they're good to have on hand for reference and research but I don't feel the need to read them when more concise and digestible books exist that give me what I need. I don't hate them because they're dry or not what I think they should have been.

I made this template last year for a group of new Champions players that I was GMing for. I wanted to make a simple export template specifically for new players that printed well. It has the stats broken into categories like what was proposed in this thread. It's not my idea, I saw it in another export template and adopted it because I liked it.

There are print templates in the download section that arrange characteriatics into groups much like the ones you have identified.

I was under the impression that COM was replaced by Striking Appearance. This is a good move IMO because it replaced a CP sink with no official game effect with one that has an actual official mechanic associated with it.

Double post, sorry!

20k all spent on PRE and you could make Dr. Destroyer mess his pants for a week. That's a 4k PRE attack give or take a soliloquy. Fun fact HD only goes to 9999 points... someone should point out this obvious oversight to Dan.

Agreed. I have not experienced the 1st through 3rd editions but I have experienced 4th through 6th. While there are some things I dislike in 6th I think it is ultimately a good evolutionary step for the game overall. It seems like people like to rip on 6th though so to each their own.

Sounds awesome, I can hardly wait to check it out.

It works for both 5th and 6th editions. There's an option in the settings to turn on 5th edition rules but the app defaults to 6th.

I look at TA and see a diamond in the rough, it's in need of some polishing and TLC and I think it would be great. Regardless, I think fantasy would be a rough go for the reasons you've outlined...which I agree with 100%. I don't know what game you're referring to for Marvel, the only Marvel RPG I'm familiar with is the old one from the 80s(?). I still would put my money on the superhero genre for HERO over Sci-Fi though.

They actually did do something like that in 5th with The Turakian Age, a setting I feel is almost criminally underrated. I personally feel that the setting should be resurrected and improved and expanded upon. There's so much potential for that setting just bursting from the pages of the main supplement. I don't know why the line was cut but I suspect it's at least partially because superheroes are really this systems high card. The market has changed dramatically since TA had it's original run; I worry that a golden opportunity is just passing HERO by. Seriously, it bothers me. I want HERO to conquer the world ? The CU is well defined and stable although it would be nice to see an updated setting book...I think the last one came out over a decade ago now??? Regardless, this is where I think the game designers should double down on. As much as I personally love TA there's a bazillion fantasy games out there and cutting through all that noise would be tough. It's what the system is really known for I would argue anyways. All if this is moot if there's no money for new books, I doubt they can even think about a marketing budget. No matter how good your product is, if no one knows about it, you're done. Word of mouth is pretty important in the RPG space, I wouldn't have played most of the games I love (including this one) if it wasn't for it. Still, with no physical presence in stores to entice gamers you need to be able to get word out about your product lines somehow.

That's good to know, I sort of suspected the DM Guild was something like that but it's good to have it explained. My comment isn't really about attracting new players specifically, it's about injecting some fresh fan-made content into the ecosystem. I think attracting new players will require money for a marketing campaign ultimately. There's a ton of setting, genre, and other books available from HERO that a new player could choose to buy. Anyways, I wasn't trying to derail the conversation.

I have to admit I don't know much about the DM Guild guidelines so I can't comment on that. I'm somewhat familiar with the OGL having had to deal with it for an app I develop. My comment was specifically in reference to community made content without the "official" blessing of the company, not canonical, and not for monetary gain. Building a pipeline of peer reviewers and using the site to distribute the fanmade module is the main takeaway from my comment. I suspect DoJ would have little qualms with this so long as you're not trying to make a buck of their IP and the quality of said module is relatively "good". One thing these forums is not short on is opinions so I imagine finding people interested in giving criticism would not be hard, even if there is no money in it for them...that's your QA process. Just an idea, I'm a DIY kinda guy in general so this approach appeals to me. Now if there was a way to get it officially reviewed and blessed by DoJ that would be something else entirely.

I'm wondering if there is not an opportunity here for the community to step up and fill that gap. I'm working on a quick one shot Fantasy HERO adventure right now complete with pre-gens. I would never claim to be the best GM and the thought of putting myself out there in that way is intimidating for sure. However, I would consider it if there was an actual demand for this type of thing. When you look at the 800lbs Gorilla (D&D) you can find plenty if paid and free fan made adventures. I would submit that HERO is so tiny these days that the paid option would not be feasible but free would work. We even have a delivery mechanism available to us via this site and the download section. If we're feeling really ambitious and there's real interest maybe a peer review forum could be requested. That way aspiring authors could get feedback on their work before it's put up for download.

Probably a PS: Detective roll or something like it

That's a very tempting location I must admit. I'm currently planning a 1-shot set in Aarn for a group of D&D players but if that goes well and there's interest I would totally look at that region for a campaign

It is - https://www.herogames.com/forums/store/product/417-turakian-age-bookpdf/ There's a PDF only available for $10 too ?

I love the setting and was curious if there's anyone else on these boards who do too? Steve did and amazing job with the book and I think it deserves more supplements. Although the base book is very detailed in terms of races, geography, theology, etc, I think there's tons of room to expand on. The setting has such good bones that it feels criminal to not expand on it. Also, an update to 6th edition would be fantastic although strictly not necessary.

I once co-ran a game where everyone had a common origin much like the Fantastic Four (accident gave them powers). It was a lot of fun but everyone bought into the idea from the start...I think it's the only way to get a common origin story going. Also, we had a player join us later in the campaign and he was kind of the odd man out unfortunately...he broke the vibe of the story through no fault of his own.

Champions: New Millennium ...I'll show myself out.

Interesting, I personally don't bother with hard Maxima in my games but I do impose a soft cap at the normal levels (ie: 20 for characteristics, 8 for PD/ED, etc). I allow players to exceed Maxima based on race out of the gate and also over time as the game evolves without penalty so long as it conceptually makes sense. I'm also super lazy when comes to things like prefabs and editing templates to have different Maxima although I have done it in the past. I like the idea of characters being able to attain Legendary status given enough time and experience. I'm not a low fantasy junkie by any stretch of the imagination though so YMMV

If I understand the question correctly I think the system already balances packages by virtue of assigning them a cost. HERO costs are already balanced around combat, that's why things like LS: Immortality is so cheap compared to a 12d6 Blast.