Any fans of the Hero System on this site? or The reports of Hero's death have been greatly exaggerated!

[Hyper-Man]

Loved HERO system. played a lot of 4th. Unfortunately picked up a bunch of stuff to play again and not sure how to run it anymore.

Well, the process of re-familiarizing yourself should be very straightforward. Unlike many other systems with multiple editions, the basic combat engine within HERO has not changed. There are now some new abilities and others have went away. Some of the costs and names of other abilities has changed. However, for the most part, a character built for 4th edition will work fine in a 5e or 6e game.

If you have any specific questions we'll do our best to answer them.

 

[Ace]

Favorite thing: flexibility. I've tried over 100 different RPG systems, and haven't found one more robust in its ability to handle different genres, character building styles, and so forth. I've even used it to do a mashup of multiple editions of D&D.

Least favorite thing: prep time. No way around it- stating out NPCs can take an eternity.

Good to know Hero is still kicking and I hope the MHI book gives them some needed attention. I'd guess there are a lot of lapsed Hero gamers in Larry's fan base.

As to DA above I agree wholeheartedly. Also PC generation sans template is hella slow

I also really like the flavor of most Hero system games, the "fluff" and the mechanics work together beautifully and just I dunno feel or taste right.Fantasy Hero is especially cool and for a generic book is great writing.

Another dislike, the phase and END/STUN/HP system for combat , Aside from this FH combat isn't especially complex and its not (as the Myths correctly note) a nightmare of bookkeeping With good rules understanding its quite versatile but it requires a degree of commitment that I can't get from most play groups. Sometimes for my guys anything more than roll to hit, roll damage is a bit much but even for the ones that aren't Hero likes its cousin GURPS is an old fashioned high commitment game, understand it and it will pay off for you. Don't bother to learn them and its not going to be as much fun.

Lastly,, hexes. I love them (being a GURPS guy) and think they are better but a lot of stuff is in squares. They are a push in my book

 

[Ace]

As long as we are talking Hero, let me share a combat speed up trick. Its designed to make combat fast, intuitive and visual. A caution though it requires a bit of prep and quite a few D10's (6 per combatant is ideal. They cost about 75 cents each if you don't have them) To make it work you need use D10's numbered 0-9, a D12 a pen ,a few homemade chits, some index cards and a big piece of paper.

What you do is draw the 12 phases on the chart top and side . Assign one color of dice and chit to each combatant.

For each combatant make an index card with their move and what stuff you expect them to use in combat.

After this place a chit at the side for each combatant and two the top to represent action and refresh.

Set a number of D10's matched to the chits aside for each combatant 6, 2 each for END, STUN, and BODY Set them to the numbers on the character sheet.

Start the D12 at one and move it as each phase comes . At each phase you move the chits for each guy across the board, thus you will immediately see action and refreshes . When its your guys turn, look at the card, do the action (or actions) move minis if used and adjust the tracking dice accordingly.

With that set up you will instantly at a glance be able to see what phase it is, who goes on what phase, refreshes, track current END, STUN and BODY and know what moves anyone can make.

If you are using minis, I also recommend putting a color chit on the base with a bit of sticky tape too.

with that prep, you have a system to track all this faster than writing and erasing everything and one that can accurately and quickly monitor the sometimes complex phase system and any passive powers attached to it.

 

[carmachu]

Well, the process of re-familiarizing yourself should be very straightforward. Unlike many other systems with multiple editions, the basic combat engine within HERO has not changed. There are now some new abilities and others have went away. Some of the costs and names of other abilities has changed. However, for the most part, a character built for 4th edition will work fine in a 5e or 6e game.

If you have any specific questions we'll do our best to answer them.

I

I remember the basics. OCV, DCV,ECV...build points. Not sure how to build muiltipowers anymore, nor some of the more advanced powers- multiform and such.

Again, its been 20 years-ish since I played, combat I don't recall.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I recently wrote up a description of of a combat over on the HERO forums.

Here's the link:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/89024-sample-fight/

Which might not work. I'm famous (not really) for never getting my links to work. In which case copy and paste are your friends.

As for the long process of character design: Hero Designer is AWESOME. Really. It handles both 5th and 6th edition rules and can handle anything from fantasy, sci-fi, supers whatever.

I'm not sure how Multiform works in 6th; IIRC it has changed from 5th edition (which is what I run.)

Multipowers aren't too bad (especially with HERO Designer.)
Design each power in the Multipower separately.
Work out which one costs the most.
The highest cost is the cost you want to pay for you MP. This is because the Point Pool for the MP must be at least as many points as any power within the MP. So say your building a Multigun. It's got 3 settings (slots in HERO speak): Kill, Stun and Sniper. For sake of argument let's say Kill and Stun slot cost 50 points each and the Sniper slot costs 60. Your MP must be built on 60 points.
Next each slot within the MP costs points = 1/10th* of the cost of the power within the slot. (In above example the slots cost 5; 5 & 6 respectively.)

As far as Power Limitations go they can be placed on the base MP Point Pool or the cost of the slots or both.

And once more I really really recommend HERo Designer.

*There is the option for slots at 1/5th cost that allow you to change the amount of the Pool Points you can use in each slot rather than using a predefined amount. This does start to get complicated and I don't have time to explain in detail here sorry.

Cheers. and Happy HEROing.

 

[Quartz]

I used to play the Hero System - specifically Fantasy Hero - in the late 80s and into the 90s. I still have the books. I hope my players then have fond memories of Uthax the coffee-loving dragon. Creating a full character was a huge task, unfortunately, and really required someone adept with the system to be around.

But once you'd got your head around it...

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Creating a character is bit daunting at first. Especially for Supers. Fantasy is a pain if the GM hasn't drawn up a good magic system AND you want to play a spell caster of some sort. But otherwise it's pretty easy.

A non-magic character: Buy your stats. Buy your skills. Buy your Perks and Talents. Buy your equipment. Ready. That's for any genre (except Supers.)

Of course, I regularly draw up supers characters for fun so I have a particular way of looking at this.

Regarding coffee loving dragons. Cool. Although I wouldn't want to disturb one before it's first tub of java in the morning.