The Fading of HERO

Anyone who's followed this blog or my writings elsewhere know that I've always been a fan of Champions and the HERO System. IMO, the best published game system ever.

Most are also likely aware that I was of the opinion that sixth edition was a mistake. A trip down a rabbit hole to fix things only Steve Long (and his personal fan base- as opposed to fans of the game) thought needed fixing. Combined with the the lost of map and mini support, horrid art, and an ugly layout- the final result was far from appealing.

Looks like I wasn't the only one with a negative opinion.

Nov 28th saw the following appear on their Hero Games website (There seems to be no direct link to the article, so I'll repeat their announcement here):


__________________________
Hero Games has been around for 30 years with ups and downs. The economy's been pretty rough lately, as has the gaming market. With declining sales and fewer releases, Hero has reached the point where it's no longer possible to maintain a full time staff of three, so it's scaling back.

Darren and Steve will be departing December 2nd, with our thanks for a decade of hard work that gave us 108 books, and best wishes for their future endeavors, which may include producing new books under a Hero System license. We'll keep you posted on that.

Jason will remain to continue shipping books and handling day-to-day matters. Existing books will continue to be available for purchase, and the company will continue in business, just a bit more slowly. The online store remains open. Steve will continue to answer rules questions on the Hero boards as "the guy who wrote the rulebook."

We're looking into doing a Kickstarter to print Book of the Empress, since it's complete and ready to go.

For the near future Hero would appreciate your kind thoughts and your patience. Transition periods of this sort take time, and Jason has a lot of work cut out for him, so the support of our fans is much appreciated.

Jason Walters
General Manager
__________________________

In a way they so deserved this.

Long was both the best and worst thing that ever happened to HERO. He was a fine editor and a work horse that personally put the game back on the map after the original owners gave up on it. Fifth Edition had some problems due to small changes he made, but on the whole was wonderful. It won awards and fans. It became a significant player in the hobby.

Success breeds hubris, and Steve Long bred it well. He grew to feel that it was *his* ideas that made the game a success instead of the game making him one. He thought he could change whatever he liked and he'd only go on to greater glory. He thought he could focus on rule changes, not settings or adventures.

Now we see the result. HERO is barely alive, it's future dim indeed.

I don't believe it had to be this way.

Will luck someone else will take over the reins in the near future.

• Someone who will return the design to the map and mini focus it had in 5th edition and before.
• Someone who will clear away the ugly art and layout
• Someone who will drop the cardboard settings that have plague HERO from the start
• Someone who will create the background and supplements that actually take advantage of HERO's ability to create the best published RPG experience I've ever seen

There's not much luck in the world. But HERO has my best wishes to find it. Without Long involved, there may be a chance it does just that. Success often breeds failure, but failure also often breeds success.

My Experience with Lulu

As I've commented on before, I ordered and received my hardback copy of my home grown rules. The book is nice, and it was a pure joy to be able to browse through it checking rule questions and doing other look ups during last weekend's game.

Binders holding hundreds of pages of rules are a thing of the pass for use now, although they remain for characters and are still useful for individual spell lists used by said characters.

I'd recommend anyone with significant homegrown rules to put them in a bound rulebook like this. Even so, I do have some comments on the process and not all are completely positive.

• The paper/binding combinations are odd. For example, you can get letter sized with soft covers but not in hardback. I'm sure Lulu has reasons for this, but it is a pain. Even worse is the limits on their abilities to offer your book through places like Amazon- the selection of format options there is quite limited.

• I used Word 2010 to produce the final PDF for printing. To do so I had to use a compatibility setting that prevented me from using some of the better formatting features (boarders and picture formatting). It pays as a result to verify what you're doing ahead of time by checking the PDF result. If one is willing to shell out the cash for the full version of Acrobat, perhaps this issue can be avoided.

• The production and shipping time is... notable. It took me the full two weeks to get my copy (and half that time for the one I sent to KC- but I used my 'proof' discount for that one). Needless to say, that was a impatient two weeks. But considering it was a custom order, it doesn't really upset me. It's just something to be aware of.

• Shipping costs are steep. I paid $10 for FedEx ground shipping that took a week. The only cheaper option was US Postal, without tracking. I'm so used to free shipping from Amazon that I was rather taken back by this. A person would be wise to keep the shipping cost in mind when making their plans.

•  The full process was very easy. Basically you download a word template so you get the margins and other settings correct, write your rules, add art if desired (I used a ton of Public Domain stuff) and save as a PDF (their online help held the correct settings for use). There after you upload the PDF, and create a cover using the online tools. You're done.

• I've read online that some have better experiences with other companies than Lulu. But I can't really speak to that (having no experience with them). Lulu did what I needed and did it to an acceptable level. Perhaps in the future I'll try another company and see how they compare.

• Unconnected to Lulu, I should note that over the years I've had a number of problems with Word (but still, little desire to change software). Basically it would lose it formatting at the oddest times. This time it was Word 2010 and it was far more stable and effective than in the past. However I found the indexing feature completely unusable.  It would automatically throw on fully editing symbol display and when I switched it back off- the formatting would be whacked. So no index, not that I'll miss it all that much.

Unreasonable Goals: Single Combat in RPGs

I remember the days when game designers were looking for really good kick-backside single combat systems. The one vs. one duel, the first attempt noticed I noticed was En_Garde! back in 1975, a game about duellists.

It wasn't very successful at meeting it goals. No one has been.

There are a number of problems that stand in the way. The most important one is the requirement is to come up with a system that involves the player to the same (or greater) degree as all the complexities of group combat- and do so in a why the presents meaningful choices that aren't effectively random (historical most attempts in this area present the player with random choices).

I consider this problem to be unresolvable, for if it was actually solved- the game becomes too complex to play with groups. An group play is really what the rpg is all about.

My own game (Age of Heroes) like many works acceptably with one-on-one combats in that it resolves them. But group battles are far more interesting tactically. They are also much safer, a single PC can easily be undone by a short series of bad rolls or decisions- groups spread these around and allow allies to aid stricken players.

A result that nicely mirrors the needs of table top gaming if you ask me.

Why does D&D hold the Market

And by D&D, I mean all its favors- OSR, 3.x and its copies, and now to a lesser extent the 4th edition version. Add together these make up most of the game sales and nearly all the online discussion one sees on forums and blogs (unless they are dedicated specifically to something else).

It's a difficult question, likely with a number of different answers. It would be fun to actually dig into it in a solid investigative fashion and determine what those answers are. But I don't have the time, money or contacts. And I doubt anyone else does (that would be willing to do so, and then willing to release the information). But that doesn't mean we can't make a good guess.

We know from previous WotC information that it isn't driven by play style as such. So that can be dismissed.

Other possible answers:

Market Penetration

D&D was the first to market, made the biggest splash, and from there on has the largest production budget and the largest amount of supporting materials on the gaming shelves (or in online catalogs).

The power of this simple fact cannot be underestimated. The same basic factors resulted in VHS winning over Beta, Windows over MAC, etc. The examples are nearly endless. You don't have to offer the best product, just the widest selection for use with your product.


Appeals to our Worst Nature

D&D combat is meant to be predictive, safe and lengthy (something clear in the writings and statements of Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, such as this one to pick one example). So safe adventure with controlled danger that the player can still pat themselves on the back for. That's a easy draw, nice reward for little risk.

Add to this simple greed. The very act of leveling, and the fact that D&D offers a lot of levels to level through. The endless search for money and magic items. MMORPGs based their entire business model upon these things, but D&D was the first to offer it.

We see this in passing statements by D&D GMs and Players, such as Jeff Rients' comment here:

"The abstract concept of treasure appeals directly to the players, by tickling their normal greedy impulses.  This goes back to my thinking that D&D is about providing an acceptable venue for expressing one's less civilized urges.  I.e. if a scenario doesn't invoke at least one of the Seven Deadly Sins, you may need to rework the premise.  Greed is one of the easiest ones to work with in D&D thanks to all the gold pieces lying about the dungeons."

We see these concepts often expressed in reviews of non-D&D products, where any that offer dangerous combat are seen as 'unheroic' for some reason or those without treasure and extreme ranges for advancement are said to be boring or incomplete.


Return to Childhood

This is most telling in the OSR movement, but really works with version of D&D. It's all still going home, it's fun to go back and do those things you enjoyed as a kid. Even if you've actually forgotten what you did, or have covered it up with the rose glasses of middle age.

It's safe, it avoids the disappointment and effort of dealing unknown game designs. And it carries with the advantages of the above two points as well. What's not to like?



All the above have resulted in stagnation in the larger hobby. It feeds upon itself in a nearly endless loop,

- D&D has the largest supporting material meaning it has more players, and the OGL allows even more material which in turn attracts even more players.

- Old timers returning to old games means new players are likely to get introduced to the hobby with these old games, meaning that no one ever looks for something different or better.

- And appeals to greed and reward without cost? That almost goes without saying. Such things never end, they only ask for more.


And thus here we are. And here the hobby is likely to stay. It wouldn't be changed by a better product. It would take a change in the moral character of gamers themselves, but IMO the influence is working the other direction.

There will be other games, but they will have little hold or influence. On the bright side, if this hobby should die (be it from more sophisticated MMORPGs or other means), it would likely be a good thing.