D20 or HERO or TriStat: what I have picked

[PCD]

There appears to be some redundancy in stats...though each has their own uses too. Redundancy isn't a bad thing, it is just a time consuming thing.

 

[JoAT]

BESM is the game from whch TriStatdX spawned, so it does give you a pretty good idea of what it's all about. TriStatdX is more "genericized", and SAS is more fitted to the supers genre specifically. I like it, but I just never found it as compelling as HERO or M&M.

For such a simple system, tristat does fairly well, I'd say - BESM spawned the system, but alot of the major bugs were fixed in dX (mostly the things that made getting abilites very cheap). M&M was fairly cool, but, as a weird part of our love for GOO (or maybe it was just a matter of personal taste), my group voted for SAS over it - and then went with Marvel Universe over that. I haven't checked out any HERO stuff though, aside from Champions: New Millenium (which I loved - but convice my group to do somethign like that to their precious world? Not gonna happen), and some used 3rd Edition stuff, which certainly didn't last long... Now, this is probably a stupid question, but is the latest Edition one that's really gonna rock my socks? I like keeping a collection of Superhero RPGs whenever possible, but as of late I've only been going for the good ones...

 

[buzz]

Champions: New Millenium is actualy not a HERO rpg. It's based on Fuzion, a bastard-child of HERO and Interlok. As far as most HERO fans are concerned, C:NM is part of the "dark days" of Champions and is best forgotten. I have not read it, so I don't have an opinion.

As for whether the current edition of HERO will rock your socks, I dunno. I certainly think it's the best incarnation so far of what is one of the most influential RPGs ever created. The existence of the excellent Sidekick (i.e., "HERO Learning Edition") for $9.95 is also a point in its favor. The current Champions is a sourcebook for HERO (written by Aaron Allston), so it doesn't stand on its own. OTOH, you don't really need it to run a supers game with HERO; it's simply a guide to the genre and using HERO for supers.

That said, if Marvel Universe is currently your players' game of choice, they might not like HERO, as it's many orders of magnitude more complex. Nonetheless, HERO is certainly one of the "good ones."

 

[buzz]

The problem with that is that power modifiers are exactly what you should not "streamline" out of Hero.

They're not missing in Sidekick, just reduced in number, iirc.

What you don't need is the redundant stats for the same basic concept (Con, Body, PD/ED, Stun, etc. for toughness), with lots of division, rounding rules that favor not-round numbers, etc.

You're probably not going to like Sidekick, then. That's all still in there. Sidekick isn't "HERO Lite"; it's "just enough HERO."

 

[Darkness]

Really?

I'll have to get dX then.

You can get the pdf version for free here:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1881&GOO_Download_Page

Assuming you register at rpgnow, anyway.

 

[Psion]

Champions: New Millenium is actualy not a HERO rpg. It's based on Fuzion, a bastard-child of HERO and Interlok. As far as most HERO fans are concerned, C:NM is part of the "dark days" of Champions and is best forgotten. I have not read it, so I don't have an opinion.

I think I'd have to number myself among those HERO fans. AFAIAC, Fuzion took away the, uh, "craftability" aspect of HERO, which is the main strength of HERO in the first place, and made it into a "laundry list" style game which are a dime-a-dozen.

 

[JoAT]

Champions: New Millenium is actualy not a HERO rpg. It's based on Fuzion, a bastard-child of HERO and Interlok. As far as most HERO fans are concerned, C:NM is part of the "dark days" of Champions and is best forgotten. I have not read it, so I don't have an opinion.

Oh, I know - it's more of the concept that was interesting than anything - Fuzion is/was cool, but, as a system it was just so-so. Still, the idea that all the other superheroes are dead, now go get'em tiger was a pretty cool premise. Rules can be taken and left, but good ideas are always useful.

At some point when I have the disposable income, I think I'll be takeing a closer look at Champions and HERO - I was not too endeared by the system I saw, going from the old second hand stuff, but, then again, I'm also keeping in mind that this was old, second hand stuff, and it's print date puts it fairly close to the revised edition of Heros Unlimted, which kinda tells me all I need to know about how much time and how well the system may have been upgraded...

 

[PCD]

I am finding that I really like HERO, but the book keeping is tough. So, whenever I need a departure from that TriStat dX is just great. I like being able to put everything about my character on one side of a sheet of paper!