Down to one at HERO GAMES...

[ShinHakkaider]

Is this pretty much the end of HERO GAMES as we knew it?

I was a big fan of theirs during 4th and 5th Edition. It's kinda sad to see them diminished like this...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Damn. That's my favorite game. I guess I need to figure out which 6th Ed supplements I still need and get 'em. Soon.

 

[Corathon]

I stopped buying their stuff when they came out with 6th edition.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I was a big fan of their 1st edition - it was the first and only superhero game that really captured the essence of 4-colour comics for me, and I had lots of fun with it.

Although I've not run or played any superhero game in many years (except for a fun 1-off of Mutants and Masterminds) I'm still sorry to hear of the problems at Hero games - their passing would be like a little bit of my history dying.

Hard times, eh?

 

[Plane Sailing]

I was a big fan of their 1st edition - it was the first and only superhero game that really captured the essence of 4-colour comics for me, and I had lots of fun with it.

Although I've not run or played any superhero game in many years (except for a fun 1-off of Mutants and Masterminds) I'm still sorry to hear of the problems at Hero games - their passing would be like a little bit of my history dying.

Hard times, eh?

 

[Crazy Jerome]

They were kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. The hardcore Hero audience seemed to be very appreciative of "Steven Long refines the heck out of the game without making any major structural changes." But the rest of their audience was only so/so on that proposition. 5th ed. done in a flush economy could work with that. Trying it again in the teeth of a bad economy was doomed from the get go--especially since they did a fairly good job the first time around.

Not that I blame them, given the personal and financial risks involved, but the only way Hero was going to grow was to gamble on more significant improvements.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I have all the editions, and while I'm sorry to see some of the changes in 6th, I have to admit its the least breakable of all the incarnations of the game, while simultaneously keeping nearly 100% of the feel & flexibility of the original.

Which is why I'll be doing a 6th Ed shopping spree soon, in the light of this news.

 

[JeffB]

Played alot of Justice, Inc. & Espionage back in the early to mid 80s, a fair amount of Champions (1st/2nd edition) as well. Subbed to their little "zine" when it started up... adventurers club, IIRC? Spent alot of money with them at the time.

I got out of RPGs for about 10 years and when I finally got around to trying HERO again, it was Champions New Millenium with Fuzion rules, and then bought FRED when it was released. Fuzion was pretty lackluster as a replacement but a decent system in it's own right. FRED made my eyes bleed more than the Pathfinder Core book does today. I never even tried to make a character , much less run a game. My player's at the time laughed when I showed them the book. We all agreed it was too much like work, considering it's just a game. I can understand the love in some general ways, but such a complex and detailed game is always going to have a very small fan base. Hard to make a living selling to a smaller and smaller crowd over the course of 20 years.

That said, I'd hate to see them go- I had alot of fond memories of JI & Espionage, as well as Champions.

Loved this old mod- ran it both for Espionage, and MSPE (another game I really miss)

 

[Mercurius]

Just out of curiosity, Danny, why would you be doing a 6E shopping spree when all of the books are/will be likely available on Ebay and Amazon marketplace for cheap? They may not be in-print anymore, but copies won't suddenly disappear...if anything they'll be cheaper if Hero Games liquidates its stock.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Personally, I have all the editions, and while I'm sorry to see some of the changes in 6th, I have to admit its the least breakable of all the incarnations of the game, while simultaneously keeping nearly 100% of the feel & flexibility of the original.

Which is why I'll be doing a 6th Ed shopping spree soon, in the light of this news.

I agree that is a good characterization of 6th. However, in my case, I was already satsified enough with 4th that the incremental refinements to the things I already liked were not sufficient to make me want to buy everything again (let alone twice, but I skipped 5th ed altogether, so that wasn't a problem). OTOH, since it is nothing but refinements, none of the things that I disliked about the base system were touched at all. So again, I might as well play with my house-ruled 4th ed, maybe adapting the new Aid rules and frameworks.

Really, from a sales perspective, that is part of the problem. With 6th ed., Hero is as polished in its faithful, original spirit as it can reasonably get. It's done. 6th ed. is excellent. Now, if they could have merely (heh) discovered a way to get new customers to try it.