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.

Review: HERO System Advanced Player's Guide 6th Edition

I was for some reason actually expecting new optional and advance rules with this product, I should have known better. As I've mentioned before, Long is basically a cut and paste writer who will reprint material whenever given the chance. This book is no exception.


Most of the book (again with the ugly cover from hell- could these possibly be worse?) consists of sections yanked from 5th edition books- be it genre books, ultimate books, or whatever.

There are basically three types of 'rules' contained within.

First is those that should have been in the core books. For example, piercing from Dark Champions? It's in here. Applying Limits on Advantages? It's in here. And so on. A significant amount is just going into more details on what are IMO mainstream rules. One could say that they are in this book because they are 'advanced'- but that doesn't explain why for some powers he goes into detail in the core book but others are withheld until this. Unless while he cuts and pastes- he's really not that good at it (like after removing COM from the game, he still left in modifiers to COM under the Disabling Wound section...). So maybe he just forgot.

Second are those rules that are more genre or specific item focused. Things like salvaging gear and items from the 5th edition Post-Apocalyptic HERO book (lots from that book actually). Stuff from Ultimate Brick 5th edition. And so on.

The third and smallest type of item is actual 'new' rules or methods. I think I've seen all them at one time or another but generally they aren't very interesting so I don't recall just where I ran across them. Nothing that I'd use (movement by segment instead of phases for example, other ways of using SPD, etc).

One is on their own with the rules contained within. They often cover the same ground (for example options to make AP offset a fixed amount of defense are but pages away from the cleaner Piercing rules- which offset a fixed amount of defense) or even conflict.

Some do part of the job and then fall flat when you go to apply it throughout the game. For example there's a welcomed 'Heroic' STR chart that has an improved progression (i.e. slower)- but it wasn't carried over into any of the other related subjects- like Growth, Density Increase or the defenses of the environment (doors, walls, etc.). I guess that would take more than cut and paste editing.

In any event, it doesn't live up to its billing. Nothing here strikes me as 'advanced', very little if anything is new, and it doesn't really take the game in new directions unless gutting the SPD and segmented systems core to HERO is your idea of a new direction.

However I still like the book, because it means that there's almost no reason (unless you want what I consider rather basic and obvious genre advice + lame versions of those settings) to buy any future genre/setting books. All the rules have been pulled into this one- just select what you need and go forth.

So if you're into HERO 6th- buy this book and avoid any future ones. Or if you for some strange reason like those genre/setting books- don't buy this one and wait until your favorite(s) comes out. I'm sure Long will cut and paste whatever he thinks it needs from the Advanced book.

HERO System 6th: A question of skill

So I'm playing around with recreating some 5th edition characters in 6th just to see, and came across this jewel...

OCV and DCV were completely detached from DEX in 6th, a fact that neither greatly upsets nor to any degree excites me of and by itself. You start off with a default of 3 in each and buy them up at the cost of 5 points each.

With that in mind, an Overall Combat level costs 10 points (btw, this is not the 5th edition Overall which costs 10 points as that now costs 12). So for 10 points I can get a plus 1 OCV or DCV for any attack... meanwhile for 10 points I could a buy +1 OCV and +1 DCV.


But you say, that Overall applies to mental combat which OCV and DCV doesn't- nope. Seems 6th edition changed that rule and now all mental combat levels must be specifically bought and the standard Overall Combat Level does not apply.


Sort of makes Overall Combat Levels a poor buy unless you're in campaign with one cap for OCV/DCV characteristics and a different one for skill levels. But I had thought Long's entire reason for 6th was to make the points more balanced- not to make you buy stuff because of campaign caps...

Now the one thing the skill level will do is allow you to increase damage (using multiple skill levels) instead of OCV/DCV. So all is not lost- except I hate those rules and have long removed them from my campaigns. Not that they would have much effect even if I allowed them due to how expensive they are (in terms of lost OCV/DCV), at least for how I run my campaigns where I design the balance such that it's important to not be hit.

Default HERO is more like D&D in that respect (easy hits, each less dangerous), and so likely makes far more use of the ability to use skill levels to increase damage.

On such fine points does game design turn.

Review: HERO System Martial Arts 6th Edition

In the past various incarnations of the HERO System Martial Artist supplement (Ninja Hero, Ultimate Martial Artist) have always been the most useful book outside the main one.

That trend certain continues with the 6th Edition version Hero System Martial Arts.

Like those before, it presents the game system's mechanical versions of most of the major martial arts styles in the world, together with suggestions for fictional styles and abilities. On top of this are rules for making up your own styles.

There is little to dislike, expect perhaps for the genre advice which is as normal for HERO boring in its presentation and only useful to someone who has no knowledge of the movies or books that drive such settings.

Compared to 5th Edition, the various real world styles have seen some revision and additions. And of course the martial powers sections are built using the 6th edition renaming conventions. In general however, there is little here that wasn't in previous editions.

Even given that, if one is going to invest in the 6th edition books they should buy this one as well. Nearly usable in any setting, I've always consider it 'core' and a must have. Easily the best treatment of martial arts (with properly built characters) ever presented in a published rpg.

Review: HERO System Ultimate Base

The Ultimate Base is one of the latest supplements for HERO System and one of the first (if not the first) for 6th edition.

It shows all the typical Long styling- heavy cut and paste from other books (Ultimate Vehicle in this case) and very little value add.

He did make the attempt, there's a whole section on medieval castles and floor plans for a number of bases. There's even a section on how to in effect create 'Kingdoms' as characters and the play thereof. This is better than average for HERO Games as maybe as much as half the book isn't cut and pasted from elsewhere.

But half is and the half that wasn't just isn't interesting. So close, but a miss. The floor plans are boring, but usable for those who don't have the time to do better. There isn't anything here that really connects, coming across as something the author had to complete more than something he was interested in.


The cover actually reflects this. It shows the HERO Games' ripoff of Marvel's Helicarrier. Only one problem- it doesn't appear in the game book. That's because it can't appear- the rules inside quickly note that such a thing isn't a base but a vehicle.

Opps.

HERO System 6 Edition Review Part II

I likely should have mentioned this in yesterday's review but it was a bit long to include there. So I'll go back and add an link.


HERO System was always a very detailed and map focused game system. The game spoke in terms of 'inches' and 'hexes'. The entire rule set was written around the use of the hex map with powers defined to match. The environment and breaking things rules made the entire map something to interact with.

Like any game one could alter it and play it without the map, but at that point you're paying points not for defined abilities (movement, area of effects, range limits, reduced by range, indirect, etc) but for abstracted 'somethings' that one could only hope the GM took into account. If one really wanted to do this, they should switch 1" of running costs 2 points for things like "Perk- Fast Runner I" for x points. But whatever, that mindset seldom is worried about consistency.

I've never encountered anyone in real life that was in the least tempted to do that, much like I've never seen a D&D group in real life do it either. But it's all the rage online and Long himself claimed that's how he played (thus perhaps explaining why he seems so tunnel-visioned with minor updates to character creation rules and nothing else- for him that's the entire game it seems).

In contrast with WotC who in their new edition embraced it, HERO Sixth did away with the map, inches and hexes providing the most minor of 'if you're using these" hints in their place.

Well sort of did away with. Really he just converted everything to meters. Which just makes the book clumsy to use. If you want to use the old HERO scale of 1 hex = 2 meters you're having to make constant conversions as you play. It's unnecessary, and really addresses nothing.

If I was actually going to switch to 6th, I'd likely deal with this at the character sheet level- making all the conversions there as I use a Excel spreadsheet of my own. But it makes HERO Designer clumsy along with any of the published books, so those the value of those resources are reduced.

Oddly enough, this combined with the unnecessary expense of replacing my 5th edition books caused me to pass on any purchases from HERO Games in the future. They were already borderline with mostly dull supplements, and this kicked the can over the edge.

The owners of HERO Games have recently brought controlling interest in the Indie Press Revolution, so perhaps they'll overextend themselves and one day end up selling HERO System to someone who actually understands and plays it as more than a character generator.

Well, one can hope can't they?

HERO System 6 Edition Review

Managed over the last couple of weeks to look over copies of the two core 6th edition books.

Things aren't as bad as they could have been I suppose. Most of the rules are intact (it takes all of one page to list the changes, and most of these really aren't except in name). When you do find a change, they are more of the type you'd except in a 5.5 edition instead of a 6.0 with one exception.

That one significant change is the removal of figured based secondary characteristics (replaced with a flat base) together with characteristic repricing. This was a long sought goal of Mr. Long, but frankly it's neither exciting nor interesting. We end up with more point inflation and without doubt it will alter things (slightly negatively) for those who build to defined point budgets. For gamers like myself who build to concept, it's just points and points don't matter.

The planned change to Kill Attacks? You know, the 1d3 for stun multiple instead of of 1d6-1? It's really just a suggestion- the books says you can do it either way. And Hit Locations (what I've always used anyway) still use the old numbers in any case.

Otherwise it's small differences. There are a couple of good ones. Power Pool purchase has been streamlined with a nice simple method that hearkens back to older editions of the game. The Area of Affect advantage has been reduced slightly in cost. And so on.

But by far most of the changes are just the replacing of names. So Energy Blast is now just Blast. Force Wall has become Barrier. And so on.

Long is a well known master of the school of cut and paste publishing- to this he now has added the power of Find & Replace. The world is stunned and God help us if he ever finds the more advanced options in Word.

The goal here seemed to be making the rules more general, i.e. to not bias the reader as to the various purposes individual mechanics could be applied to. But it bleeds the soul out of the game and makes a ruleset that was already dry even more barren. I recall reading the original Champions rulebook and being flooded with ideas of where to take it. Force Fields! Armor! Those labels spoke to someone attempting to model a world. Resistant Protection? Chirping crickets. If 6th was the first edition of the game I had encountered, it would have likely been the last.

Visually the books are horrid. Someone thought orange on blue was a good color combo for the cover. I don't think I have ever encountered something as ugly. The whole book is in color (keeping up with the latest fad) and it hurts.

From the blue headers to the artwork (much of it taken from Champions Online) I just don't like the look of the book. Color is often good, but in this case it gives a comic book feel to everything. Fine for a comic book based game, but not the best choice for a system that is suppose to cover various other genres. There black and white (or less stark coloring) would have been nice.

Also Champions Online for whatever reason has once again changed the look of the Champions setting and background. As but one example, why Defender looks like a dude in tights and a open face helmet instead of an Iron Man ripoff is beyond me- but the change is frankly stupid.

Looking at their releases in the line, it looks to be a reply of 5th edition. So yet once again, I think HERO System will lack their Greyhawk or  Forgotten Realms, i.e. no setting that really takes flight with the rules and becomes a name in the mind of their players. That would have been something worth a 6th edition.


In the end, this is a workable set of rules just like HERO has always been. But very little has been gained with this release except cash flow to Long's pocket. If you have 5th edition, save your money and house rule in a couple of the changes (like Power Pools). If on the other hand you don't have a copy in good repair, well this is better than nothing.

Part II of this review: Hero dumps the Grid

Suppressive Fire and HERO System- Solutions

Previously we reviewed how HERO System handled Suppressive Fire in the core rules and foundd it somewhat wanting.So we turn to house rules in order to achieve our goal.

Here I see two possible (and simple) options.

1. Define 'movement' into a hex declared for the Suppressive Fire maneuver to be the taking of any action not just actual movement (i.e. making an attack). This at least subjects the person to the choice of accepting an attack in exchange for doing much of anything. Along with this we'd have to overturn the restriction on requiring auto-fire for Suppressive Fire..
2. Rather than modifying the Suppressive Fire rule, modify the Presence attack rules by providing more bonus dice to the attack, likely linked to the number of rounds fired. This would have to count as an action instead of the normal zero phase Presence Attack perhaps also requiring the attacker to hit the target hex (DCV 3) or target's cover (typically DCV 0). Additionally the negative modifier for repeating an presence attack would have to reduced or removed for Suppressive Fire. Spreading or Firing into multiple hexes would allow the attacker to cover more than one target.

Both of these have their advantages and disadvantages.

The first eats up a ton of ammo (making it unlikely it would commonly be used), and to make it work we would have to scale the OCV modifier with the ammo expended (i.e. say a single shot takes -3, two takes -2, 3-5 takes -1, 7-10 takes -0, etc). On the plus side it allows freedom of player choice and allows Suppressive Fire to  be dangerous.

The second actually represents the genre use of Suppressive Fire better and is much lighter on ammo (as you only need to fire on your phase and not each segment between them). The roll for the Presence attack replaces any damage roll, or standard effect can be used to avoid any die roll at all. The downside is that Suppressive Fire is never really dangerous in itself.


I'll be presenting these two options to my players and we'll see what people think.

Answer to 5E HERO Quiz

Ok, it appears that no one is going to catch the problem with 5th Edition Dive for Cover that posed in the last article. Not unexpected, really. I don't think I have many readers who are really into that system.

As a said in the previous article's comments, Dive for Cover is a straight up Dex Roll (with a -1 per hex of distance you're 'diving'). It was originally only intended for use vs. Area Effect attacks.It was sort of neat as it provided a active defense against AoE attacks that would under normal conditions ignore target DCV and couldn't be blocked. It was also very genre in many cases (such the shout of 'grenade!' in any military setting).

I stated that 5th Edition screwed up this ability when it allowed it to be used against normal directed ranged and melee attacks.

Why?

Let's answer that by means of an example.

In 5th edition, let's check out a normal beat cop (DEX 11, +1 Skill Pistols) shooting at a Hydra thug (also DEX 11, no skills applied to DCV) from a range of 3". The chance to hit is 11+4+1-4 or a 12-.

The Hydra thug decides to dive for cover, and only needs a hex. It's an 11- with -1, or a 10-. He has a 50% chance to avoid the normal beat cop.

Now let's see the ulimate expression of human combat ability (Captain America for Marvel based settings) as he attempts to whack the same thug with a toss of his shield also at a range of 3".

He has a DEX of 25 with 6 combat levels, for an OCV of 8 + 6 or 14. 11 + 14 -4 gives him a 21- or less on 3d6 so he can't miss.

Which is fine, that's basically the way it goes in the comics.

However... The Hydra thug decides to dive for cover, and only needs a hex. It's an 11- with -1, or a 10-. He has a 50% chance to avoid the attack of Captain America.

Really.

The reason is because the Dive for Cover defense is completely unmodified by the abilities of the attacker.

The game result is marked:

1. Genre is broken as comman thugs are avoiding attacks from the greatest superheroes in the campaign as if they are normal people.

2. Actual combat is lengthened as the GM is now able to increase the 'life span' of all his agents in battles- just drive for cover for any that are attacked. Half the time it means the superhero must use at least one follow up attack on the same target- and that allows any remaining agents an additional (in effect) free shot.



Horrible game design. And worse, an unneeded change. The system already had Dodge to help in defense of this type. Long pulled a number of things like this in 5th, and I fully expect 6th to full of them.

To be honest, I feel the only thing Long does in HERO is build things- judging from his rules, he doesn't seem to play.

A pointer to HERO 6th Edition reviews

I can't bring myself to buy the two books needed to do my own review of 6th edition HERO System. But from reading online, these two reviews at RPGNet hit the high points: Character Creation and Combat and Adventuring.

They seem to be rather well done and match what I've read elsewhere with the reviewer hitting most of my own reactions.

Point Inflation. Beh. I knew this would happen, and the reviewer does an good job pointing out why it is a bad thing.

The nerfing of Killing Attacks stand out. The original design considered their advantages to be balanced by their disadvantages, i.e. for most settings not-killing is the preferred option to killing combined with consistent result and better knockback. Long disagreed and dropped the stun multiple markly (and unrealistically) to 1d3 instead of 1d6-1 (or 1x-5x with 3x as the average for those like me who use hit locations).

You could buy it back up of course, by spending many more points. One would have to buy more than just a mere +2 stun multiple however as non-resistent defense apply against stun (even when there are no resistant defenses) to produce the same effect against unarmored targets. Which of course changes the balance unless you buy some piercing likely with it's own limits(which may or may be in 6th, I haven't read anything saying one way or the other on that).

Reviews like this don't cover many minor but significant changes. So I imagine things are even worse than the review indicates. For example, Long changed Dive for Cover in 5E such that it worked against direct single target attacks, melee as well as range.

Brain. Dead. Stupid. Free (worthless) game design points to the reader who first tells me why (my players excluded).

Champions Offline

In something somewhat related to HERO Games, Champions Online crashed Christmas day and was still down as I went to bed last night.

For those who are unaware, Champions Online is a MMO using the HERO Games setting. Sort of fun, but IMO an incomplete game. Its system isn't based on HERO (in fact, being not effect based it's a complete reversal of HERO System). Just the background and characters and even those seem greatly altered at least in appearance.

The owning company isn't HERO Games, but rather Cryptic. Still, Long is always talking about it at the official web site. So I consider the crash on what had to be an important day of first experiences to many customers to be karma for 6th edition.

I'd smile except that I work in IT and know that the poor slobs working at Cryptic are in for a major backside chewing over this. Someone there deserves it, but it may not be the people getting the worse of it.

Comments on the State of the 'Market'

Busy time for me, Christmas is on the way and it's something of a big deal for my family. A lot to do that takes time away from my blog. Insult to injury, the latest expansion for Lord of the Rings Online shipped and that means we need to stay 'current' and that eats a bit of time.

So I'll be returning to my series on Hit Points soon.

In the meantime, some passing comments…

HERO 6th edition has shipped. As readers of this blog know, I'm not rushing out to buy it. With this change of editions, there's no longer a currently published game system of note (i.e. that you're likely to find on mainstream store shelf) that I use or support. Rather sad.

The largest change that I saw was to Killing Attacks, where one now gets to apply their non-resistant defense against the stun of the attack. I see this basically as a further move towards D&D style hit points, a style that the official HERO line has pushed since the days of Fantasy HERO- but now the option to build characters in a different style has been removed from the rules.

Or rather that seems to be the case. Does anyone know if the official rules include an option to use the old Killing Attack methods?


In more general terms, it seems the major gaming companies have all decided to revise (i.e. redesign) their game lines. New WoD, Shadowrun, D&D, HERO, Salvage Worlds, etc all represent this trend. Vast changes in core systems producing significantly different styles of play.

I suppose GURPS (a system I never liked) is the only standout of note. Or maybe it isn't, I didn't follow their latest edition changes.

It's difficult to say what the future holds, but such wholesale directional change indicates the beginning death throes of a hobby. A feeling by the companies that the old game styles no longer work, and that they have to risk everything on radical new editions.

Or maybe it's driven by the ego of the current owners. From my examples only Salvage Worlds and GURPs haven't changed either owners or management teams. HERO would seem to be an exception, except Long is on record as saying this edition was the first that allowed him to make the changes he wanted.

Whatever the case, I now see in the online world what I've seen only once before except for a few off-line groups: old edition hold outs. The last time I this, it was with FUZION. And that failed completely resulting in flameouts for the owning companies.

Will that history repeat as history often does?

Time will tell.

For now, my money is on the RPG hobby mirroring that of the comic books: A decline in sales and importance in their original offering by an order of magnitude.

With this, a transfer of their concepts to a new media. Yes, computer games will be the future for rpgs much like movies have become the future for comics.

HERO System Posts Suck, HERO Games sucks more

I was reviewing the traffic to my site over the last few days and noticed a pattern. The HERO System posts draw far less traffic than other subjects. And the actual HERO System builds draw even less (from what I can tell, the Giant Ant PDF got all of two downloads).

Dying game system? Maybe, who knows. Rather foolish to leap to that thought with this as the only data point.

Besides, this blog is 'marketed' (actually, its not really marketed in any real sense- but the word sort of applies) as a design theory blog and not as a HERO System blog. So I imagine a drop in interest like that should be expected. Plus I don't draw huge amounts of traffic anyway.

So I guess its time to go back to my core competency, and count that type of post as a failure. Pity, they were easy and fun (for me).

In other HERO System news, am I the only one getting the impression that HERO Games is running around with its head cut off?

HERO 6th still hasn't shipped, although you can now get a basic book and some other odds and ends from their website.

And speaking of their online store- I haven't seen a worse one in a long time. Rather than presenting their new 6th products in a single entry each with full descriptions and multiple purchase options, they have individual entries with next to no descriptions.

They are also doing some sort of basic/advance lineup, but the online store doesn't say where the 6th edition book they're waiting on fits into that. In short, there's little to nothing there describing their product line and the options they are offering their buyers.

Also, their first 6th edition support book coming out is Ultimate Base instead of Champions (it will be second). What idiot came up with that publishing plan?

I used to say that as far as Game Designers go, Long was a fine editor and publisher. For now at least, I should take out that 'publisher' part.

Morrow Project meets THEM!

A post-apocalyptic world without giant radiated ants is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the jelly.

Add in the fact that THEM! was one of my favorite movies of my childhood (and one of the best 50s monster movies), and the case was settled. Giant ants would be one of the first villains the players would encounter.

The HERO System write-up is fairly straight forward, and is based upon the movie. There are a couple of points that likely need to be explained however.

The Physical Limit: Takes Cumulative Body for example is an exception to a house rule I've used since Hit Locations became part of the system. In HERO Body is cumulative like HP is in D&D- add up the total damage and when it equals or exceed your Body you're dying.

That's fine (well, not really- but it works ok) if one isn't using Hit Locations. But if you are, characters who have been shot in the foot or hand for injuries that aren't even impairing are suddenly dying. And that's silly both from a genre and realism point of view.

So normally Body damage isn't cumulative in my campaigns (bleeding is), you take the effect of the individual injury and go on down the road.

For THEM! however, cumulative body works very well. The ants don't feel pain as such and in the movies would wade through gunfire unless it was fully automatic or done in mass.

The combination of the Damage Reduction and cumulative reflects this perfectly.

The second thing I'd like to point out is the Mandibles Multi-power. The movie didn't have THEM! cutting people in half (and it's a better movie IMO for that, I hate stupid and excessive gore). I reflected this by saying that the Mandibles aren't sharp by human standards- thus the normal damage attack. They however convert to a kill attack against large enough targets.

Reflects the movie well, and from a game PoV makes it easier for the players to live through a encounter greatly roughed up instead of dead. Assuming they win of course...

So, with the explanation finished, it is time to deal with: THEM!

Another Morrow Project Build

Given yesterday's post on the Landmaster, I thought I'd follow up by providing an example character sheet for one of the PC in the Campaign.

The team consists of half a Special Forces A-Team plus a couple of scientists. Rather than the hard-core realism of the original game, it's done as almost a pulp style version action adventure.

Creating a good Special Forces write-up in HERO System takes more than just a few points. The real world training is extensive and they start with already experienced soldiers for the most part. A base of 100 points plus disadvantages will just get you there leaving little to individualize the character, so we started with the top end (for non-superheroes) of 125 points plus up to 125 points of disadvantages.

The character sheet is laid out in a rather odd way. It actually starts on the back with the package deals that make up the character's training presented in chronological order, and presented in their complete form. The front contains specialized training and individual skills.

The result is that the same skill may appear more than once, when this happens we've put the skill roll on the first occurrence of the skill on the back of the sheet, or on it's appearance on the front if present. The rest of the entries are marked with a '$' (called cash money upgrade by the players).

This makes the sheet dificult to read until one gets used to it, but keeps the training history of the character intact.

These characters are in many ways the most competent and well-rounded characters we've ran in HERO System.

Our example PC is First Sergeant Preston Walker.

By nature Preston is an idealist protected by enough experience to understand realism. He joined up to protect his country and takes the SF motto of de oppresso liber (to 'free the oppressed') to heart. His grandfather was a hero in WWII and he strives to live up to that idea.

A strong family man who's lost track of his wife and son due to the breakdown of the Project. He was told that they were to be taken to safety and likely put into stasis at one of the major bases. However he doesn't know if they made it there as the last transports left under fire. Nor does he know which base, or for that matter where any other base at all may be located.

As a result he is quite angry at waking up long after the planned period, and is currently thinking that things are moving too slowly. This is often most reflected in conflict with Prof Winston, one of the scientists who in Preston's mind is taking this as more of a puzzle to be solved than the serious disaster that it is.

His Captain is worried about this mindset, given that Preston is his top Sergeant currently, and he needs him calm and in control.

Behold the Landmaster!

Back in 1997, Fox released a movie by the name of Damnation Alley. It's subject was a cross-country run by a small band of survivors through the 'safest' 100 mile wide 'alley' in a post-apocalyptic world.

While that was a very promising setup (one of the best IMO), it was a rather bad movie. The special effects couldn't handle recreating the mutant threats that would have given it real kick, and the writing was sub-par as well. Sigh.

It's most remembered for two things. The first was being almost forgotten in the year that saw Star Wars come to the screen.

The other and more important was the Landmaster. For a generation that loved special vehicles like Bond's car or the Batmobile, the Landmaster was pure wishfulfillment. An armored all terrain RV with the teeth and electronics able to take the worst the post-apocalypitc world could throw at it.

And it was a real vehicle too. Well, the weapons were just props bolted on, but the core was real enough.

I've kept it in my imagination down the years along with the Enterprise and some other icons of sc-fi. It was a natural for it to appear in my Morrow Project campaign. And the designers of the original Morrow Project thought so as well, as it was the basis for the MARS One vehicle.

The MARS One however was too expanded- double the size with enough weapons to make an desert painted Abrams turn green with envy. It was just too much.

So I went back to the original and like the original put two in the hands of my players. They just reached them in play, although digging them out of the bunker will prove to be hard and dangerous work...

Given that the original was from 1977 and mine would be made in 2012, it needed some updates although far less than I at first expected.

First up was the standard Project almost magical Fusion power system and the electrical engine that comes with it.

It's already impressive 1 cm thick armor would be improved by concepts from a project that I read about- the use of magnetic fields to greatly enhance vehicle armor. The idea was to provide the same protection found on the M1A2 battle tank to an armor car like the LAV 25. That sounded perfect for my new model Landmaster.

The original had six machineguns mounted at different points. These were cheap Hollywood props as the forward ones clearly are glued on barrels without room for the actual gun. I decided to go with pulse lasers (again taking something from both current projects and the original MP game itself). I decided a low rate of fire would explain why the side mounts (and front for that matter) were in pairs. Powered by the fusion reactor, their independance from ammo will be useful in the game and they could look like they were bolted on as the 'gun' wouldn't have to be of conventional shape.

The twin rocket pods on the back were clearly 2.75" seven shot pods in common military use even today. Mostly an air-to-ground weapon, what were they doing on the Landmaster?

I thought that maybe if one replaced the warhead with a HEDP one (i.e. able to double duty for anti-vehicle and anti-personal) and added laser guidance- one might have something...

... look no further than the real world Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) and the M247 warhead of the Hydra 70.

The forward firing mortars at first seemed odd with the APKWS system installed. But if they were basically just an auto-loading 60mm mortar using cheap (and small) ammo- they could be used for targets not requiring the expense of the APKWS. So I kept them for this use.

Toss in the Boomerang shooter detection system, which I expanded to detect the location of any incoming fire, and I was just about done. Except for the sensors and a few other odds and ends that made up the vehicle.

So here's my HERO System 5th Edition Morrow Project Landmaster write-up. It's my first draft, but is very close to final. Note that it is built to my own house rules and standards.

HERO 6th Still on that slow boat from China

According to the Hero Games website, their books didn't make it on the boat on the 10th after all, but is said to have managed it more than a week later.

Far as I'm concern, it can stay on that slow boat forever.

I wonder if I could start an Old School HERO movement like the D&D OSR guys? Likely not. I think D&D is the only game that could support that type of thing.

The coming of HERO 6th Edition

According to the herogames.com website, today's the day that 6th edition was suppose to be loaded on the slow boat from China. It still hasn't shown up for even advanced sales on places like Amazon yet, so the truth of that claim can be debated.

The whole thing is something I dread, a coming of something like the D&D 4E edition wars that will result in my abandoning of any new HERO System production.

One of the telling signs is that unlike the previous production of 5th edition, there's no single easily found description of all the changes that 6th will make. I did find a list of links to 'showcased' changes here. I doubt there will be a list or PDF of all the system changes. Judging from those showcases and other statements on the official website- they're just too extensive, almost the equal of just printing the books.

Part of me wants to buy the rulebook so I can judge it fully based upon all the facts. But that part is fading. It seems that there are two core books now instead of one. Total using the package price is $70. However those two books don't contain everything, the links above contain references for an 'advance play book. So now we're at three books and likely $100 to replace the one book I currently have.

Now maybe if I found the changes useful, it would be worth it. But frankly they all look to be nit-picking of the worse type.

Sure, there's some sort of gain with things like Resistant Protection which replaces both armor and forcefield (the latter becomes a limited version, and would likely end up cheaper as a result). It's a more unified building block approach. But that's a abstract sort of gain that would appeal to a lawyer like Long instead of a gamer and is a haul mark of the thought processes that drive this edition.

There are downsides in such an approach. Before various powers could be defined in terms of Armor or Forcefield (NND with the defense being Forcefield is a classic, often used in lightsaber builds or similar weapons). Now that NND has to be defined against a set of power & power limits or special effects (completely meta-game determined at that point).

So one is trading one type of sloppy (different powers for the same core effect) for another sloppy (harder and more detailed listing of powers and power interaction), and I already know all the sloppy with 5th edition. There's no gain in total IMO, and in fact I consider the new method worse.

So why make such changes?

Two reasons come to mind. The first is the classic 'new edition to make more money' that drives much of the rpg market. The second is Long's ego and law trained mind. He bought HERO from the original owners and this is his chance to make it his own. That desire would natually express itself in his nit-picking build focused mindset and the attempt to actually make the points balanced (which is impossible no matter what he does).

So as of right now, I'm giving up on 6th and Hero Games as a lost cause after over 20 years of loyality. This is subject to change perhaps, but I'd have to have good reason to toss that much money to a design concept I don't support.

Will HERO 6th have it's own Edition Wars?

I previously talked a little about the upcoming 6th edition of HERO System here and what my reaction to it was (which can be quickly stated as "pessimistic with a bit of wait and see").

Of course my reaction is only important to my group and myself. The impact of my buying or not buying 6th edition products being insignificant compared to the whole. So that leaves open the question of what the buying public at large will think of the new edition.

Such things are very difficult to tell.

On one hand, the forum posters over at herogames.com can claim to have had input into the new rules and thus in general will be boosters of the new line. They likely think they represent the public's actual views on the matter.

However I seriously doubt that the forum posters represent much besides the hardcore fanbase who by definition thinks Steven Long walks on water, there are many HERO System fans with far different opinions. Forums tend to lean towards a single mindset more often than not and are a poor measure of much of anything.

We can look at what history tells us and that is often one of the best measures...

The last major systems to make significant changes in their games were World of Darkness and D&D 4th Edition. In both cases the result could best be stated as 'mixed' with significant numbers of long time players disenchanted and with rather general agreement that the new lines have yet to measure up to previous success.

Deadlands was another, and while Savage Worlds has seen some success in a few corners- the Deadlands brand is almost dead compared to its height.

The open question is if 6th edition will change the game's play style to the degree those did, and if it will have the same impact.

There are certainly changes, but as I noted in my previous post- they (at least the ones talked about so far) are at the construction level- which is not where most players interact with the game. It's also the easiest part of the design to overcome by just changing your build approach and/or altering starting points (or even building to concept instead of point budget).

I can see many old time players however not taking that much effort. And if enough of them are lost, HERO will lose a major segment of it's marketing strength as it depends more upon the word of mouth from their older players than D&D or World of Darkness ever did.

Long has decided to roll the dice on a successful game line, if he wins he gets to inflate his ego even more. If he loses, the hobby may will lose one of the best games it ever had. It was a chance he didn't have to take, but one he did anyway.

It will be interesting to see the result.

HERO 6th: Change for the sake of change...

Some time back Steve Long (the 'industry's' best RPG editor, but likely it's worst designer) let it be known that he was hard at work on the 6th edition of HERO System- but this time he had the freedom to make any and all changes his little heart and large ego demanded.

Anyone making that claim at any time is reason enough to cause thoughtful men to cringe in dread. Seldom indeed does that golden road lead to anyplace good.

We now have some tidbits of the upcoming changes.

They show Long's typical tunnel vision- a bunch of changes to the construction rules. He's been all over that from the beginning- seeming to think that one can actually play balance points in the abstract instead of balancing them in the campaign (see my view of Point based construction here and here).

There's some simplification in the listed changes, getting rid of figured characteristics and the like. This comes at the cost of disengaging related traits and the easy shorthand defaults they provided. There's a fair list, and promise of yet more to be detailed in the future.

He's getting rid of hex maps, because you know some of the hobby is insulted when people mention hex maps.

And...

...take a look yourself, I'm too bored to detail everything and given I don't have the real numbers and costs yet- it doesn't pay to consider them too closely anyway.

The thing is, it doesn't matter from where I set. I'll build characters the way I want to build them- and I just don't care what the costs in the book are. I'll still achieve my goals.

Now it's possible that some of the unknown changes may alter HERO greatly. For example, the 1d3 stun for Kill Attacks (with normal defense applying vs. Stun) is quite the nerf- and alters the balance of those abilities greatly... well maybe it is and does or maybe it doesn't. You see we don't know the cost of the power yet, it may well not be 15 per d6 anymore.

And heaven only knows what he intends to change about how the game is played as opposed to how much it costs to make something. This could be the death blow to the whole company if it goes too far.

So it's wait and see more before making a real judgment.

Well, there is one real judgment I can make now. There was no need for a 6th edition that was any more than a cleanup of the 5th. The rules worked fine for anyone who actually understood them, and if someone doesn't- no amount of change will make them make the effort to do so now.

No, this is all about Long's own ego, making his own mark, and selling a new edition of rules and cut & paste supplements that he's become famous for.

That much I'm certain of.