ihollaway

Jhamin,

Clean, concise, 0% snark.  Much appreciated.

Thank you everyone for the input.

After reading through all your posts, I decided I liked what I was hearing and decided to go ahead and purchase the 6th edition - if only to do my part to support the company.  Unfortunately, they are sold out of Book 1.  <sad trombone>  Guess it will have to wait...

Thank you everyone for the input.

After reading through all your posts, I decided I liked what I was hearing and decided to go ahead and purchase the 6th edition - if only to do my part to support the company.  Unfortunately, they are sold out of Book 1.  <sad trombone>  Guess it will have to wait...

For the most part the game plays pretty much the same as it did in the older editions.  The biggest change is probably the stun multiplier for KA, which is a good thing.  It used to be that the single most powerful 60 point power was the 4d6 RKA.  With a good roll it could take down just about any character.  The second thing would be the new power damage negation which I also think is a good addition.  It allows you to basically pay to be able to ignore a certain amount of damage classes.  
 
The elimination of figured characteristics is also a good thing.   Sure it cost more but it leads to better characters.  Now there is less reason to buy up certain stats just to save points.  CON is the biggest example of this.  It used to be that everyone bought up CON as high as they could to save points on the figured stats.  STR was not quite as bad but it did lead to most characters being bricks or at least having brick like stats.  It does mean that stats cost more, but you get more points so it works out to be about the same.  The only exception is that purchasing the base stats just to get the figured stats no longer works.  So some characters who exploited the cost savings of the figured stats will be less powerful.
 
Advantages and limitations have changed a little.  In general there are more options to refine how you purchase things.  For example now the advantage for an area of effect is based on how large an area it covers.  This allows you to get more powerful attacks with a smaller area.  There are more options for having an attack that works against different defenses.  Now if the defense is the same level or rareness it does not cost anything.  
 
Disadvantages have been replaced by complications.  Complications don’t give you any points, but you are required to take a certain amount of complications.   The amount of complications you need is a lot less than the maximum disadvantages used to be.  For example a standard super hero is built on 400 points and has to have 75 points in complications.  I think this allows a GM to actually use the complications more than in the previous editions.  When you had half a page of disadvantages it was hard for the GM to really use them without seeming like he was picking on the character.  To me this is one of the best things about 6th edition.  
 
As I said if you have played Hero system before it will not be that different.  The game plays pretty much like it did in earlier editions.  The biggest difference will be in character creation.  Once the characters are created they actual play will be very similar to older editions.   In short I would highly recommend going to 6th edition.  
 

Haven't played HERO since 3rd/4th edition era, but thinking about picking it back up.

Is it worthwhile to upgrade to 6th?  What kind of improvements have been made to the game?  How different are the mechanics?

(If there is already a Topic on this, apologies.)

Jhamin,

Clean, concise, 0% snark.  Much appreciated.

Long story short: the mechanics are 90% the same as 4th.

From a Hero system perspective:
The costs for several powers have changed
The details of how several powers work have changed
A couple powers were altered to be subsets of other powers (Transfer is now a Drain and an Aid bought together instead of a separate power for example)
Figured characteristics have been removed (buying more con no longer gives you more stun, you buy each separately).
5th edition allowed characters to throw multiple attacks on one attack action.  Apparently this was *always* intended to be in Hero since 1st, but wording was ambiguous.  Now it isn't, and 6th carries on in this.  It ended up not being as big a deal as was feared, but it's a thing.
Characters are no longer required to have as many disadvantages
There are new powers, new advantages, new ways of doing things, new stuff
 
The original 6E grew to two books of just rules with extensive examples and options.  For some folks this got to be too much.
The most recent version of the rules is in Champions Complete, which dials back the wordiness quite a bit and fits Hero and Champions back into one book again.
Champions Complete and 6E book 1 and 2 are basically the same rules, Champions Complete is just more concise.

From a Champions Perspective (if you are playing supers)
Starting characters get more points, the feeling was this does a better job of simulating modern comics
Campaign limits/suggestions make characters hit harder and take hits a little less well.  This isnt a change in the rules but a change in the recommended builds.  It makes fights go quicker
*Lots* of stuff in the "Champions Universe" has changed.  When 5th came out the universe was reshaped to only include characters that Hero actually owned and took another crack at lots of characters.  6th ed mostly kept what 5th had put into place.

Overall:
If you already have all your old books and just want to play with those, go ahead. 
If you want to be able to use the more modern books, I'd go ahead & pick up the 6E rules.