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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Killer Shrike" data-source="post: 2011481" data-attributes="member: 1829">Fantasy Hero 416 pages, Trade Paperback, Perfect Bound, Black & White Retail: $31.99 Authors: Steven S. Long Artists: Storn Cook (cover), various (interior) Bias Disclaimer: I playtested Fantasy HERO and was also part of a modest "Advisory Board" prior to the playtest that the author bounced a few questions off of. I'm not a HERO System employee and am not compensated by DOJ dba HERO Games. I'm just a fan of the game. **************************************************First off, this supplement is for the Hero System and does not include any d20 material. However, if you just ignore all of the HERO System mechanics, its jam packed with general Fantasy genre tidbits. **************************************************The Fantasy HERO Phonebook, as we call it locally, clocks in at about an inch across the spine. And much like a bodybuilder with about 5% body fat, it's interior is rippling and bulging with well defined and powerful meat.A "heavy" book for a "heavy" game system, this book has the audacious goal of covering the entire gamut of the Fantasy genre from a Roleplaying perspective. While that goal is unattainable by any single book in my opinion, Fantasy HERO makes an impressive run at it nonetheless.What this book isnt: * Not a Setting* Not a Laundry List of all inclusive items* Not a monolithic all-defining paradigm* Not a nueroticly unhappy robot with a suicide complexWhat this book is:* An engaging treatment of many of the genre's common elements* A collection of many (many) different ways of accomplishing common elements of the genre* A collection of World Building tips* A guideline for how existing HERO System mechanics can be used in a Fantasy setting* A collection of all new HERO System mechanics (primarily in the form of new Talents), and Packaged Deals* A revolutionary approach to Magic System design, with 12 sample Magic Systems provided to get the ball rolling* A Mass Combat facilitator* A GM's aide/mentor-in-a-book* A pleasantly hefty blunt weaponGeneral Use: This book is most useful to GM's, as it provides a lot of handy tools and advice for running Fantasy games in general, and in the HERO System particularly. However, the first part of the book contains the Package Deals and new Talents, and about midway thru the book is the ever popular price and weapons lists, which players would get use from.Cover Art: One of Storn's better pieces, I like it well enough. Some have said it's too superheroish, but it suits me just fine.Interior Art: The HERO System books are almost infamously sub-par on the illo standpoint, an often cited (and frequently only cited) flaw. However, I thought that FH was better than most HERO System products in this regard, with some really nice pieces and only a few bleh ones. In fact some of the art was actually pretty good and inspirational to my mind; considering the sheer size of this book they get lost in the sauce a bit, but they are in there. Introduction: You know its a HERO Games book right off the bat; there's a sidebar reference to "Duplication; HERO Games Text Only (-2)", refering to the fact that some of the world building material from the Star HERO Genre book is repeated. Got to give props to a Game System that pokes a little fun at itself from time to time. That Steven Long fellow doesnt beat around the bush much and this Intro is no exception. It gives a summary of the book's sections, a sidebar note pimping other HERO System products to use in conjunction with FH, and a blurb about "Historical Realism" being basically ignored in favor of gaming tropes. Chapter 1: One of the parts useful to non HERO Gamers, this chapter is like Fantasy Genre Deconstruction 101. It attempts to categorize sub- and meta- genres of Fantasy, and then gives a great list of classic "bits" common to the genre. In alphebetical order no less. From Alchemists to Wizards, we get six pages of text covering these bits and the various forms they might take. This is actually a great kickstart for ideas as well; a GM brainstorming a new setting or adventure might glance thru this list and fixate on a couple of classic bits to combine together in a new way as a good starting hook for instance. This section is generally useful, but very experienced GM's will probably skim it, nod, and move on. I know I did at least. However there is still a lot of great coverage here, and the book would be remiss in it's objective if it didnt cover the bases. Chapter 2: A Nuts & Bolts Chapter, this section is really only of use to HERO Systems players as its mechanics oriented.The first 34 pages of the Chapter are Package Deals for a variety of races and professions. Package Deals are a HERO System tool that is basically just a list of abilities intended to be taken together. There is no mechanical benefit for taking Packages (there was in previous versions, but that was excised in the current Edition), so they are strictly conveniences. Handy for GM's that dont want to come up with them on their own, but ultimately many HERO System GM's will likely prefer to make their own Package Deals, and it's not like its hard to do either. However, this will likely be a big selling point for people new to the System, as the Art of Package Design is something that takes a while to learn <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The next few pages cover Characteristics in the Fantasy context, including a STR chart listing Fantasy items rather than the "Battle Ships" and "Motorcycles" from the general purpose STR chart; handy that. Also covered is about a page worth of text for dealing with variant Normal Characteristic Maxima by race, and suggestion for how to deal with a problem common to the HERO System in heroic settings -- stat compression. Because the HERO System scales upwards into insane power levels if desired, normal people ranges of characteristics are pretty low. You start at 10 in all Primarys, and reach Characteristic Maxima at 20 on same. Now, in the HERO System you can go above Characteristic Maxima no problem, each point of Characteristic just costs double is all. Also, the HERO System has break points every 3 and 5 points of effect for most Characteristics. The net effect of these two circumstances is that you tend to see a lot of 23 STR 20 DEX 18 CON 18 BODY characters running around. Several various ways of minimizing this is included for GM's that prefer more spread in Characteristics.Next up is a section on Skills. Pretty straightforward section covering the various HERO System Skills and their appropriateness and use in a Fantasy Setting. Nothing to keep you turning pages all night reading, but useful as an in-play aid. Next up is Perks. Perks is a HERO System mechanic for things which are neither learned (Skills) or inherent to a character (Talents), but instead are generally societally oriented. This section is excellent, chock-full of great bits for inclusion in a Fantasy setting. One of the best bits is the expansion of Contacts to include "Spirit Contacts", and another good one is a chart listing "Demesne" for building Bases with -- useful for those who aspire to be landed nobility, warlords, and the like.Next up is Talents. Talents are like mini-Powers in the HERO System; things that are unusual but attainable by nominally "normal" folks. Things like Eidetic Memory and Ambidexterity are typical Talent fare. A few existing Talents are touched on as being good for a Fantasy Setting, but then one of the best parts of the book follows with many new Talents, such as the controversial (but ok in my book!) Deadly Blow, Beast Speech, Follow Thru Attack, and Turn Undead. Theres quite a number of them and they are all very good at modeling various things that occur in Fantasy settings. Of particular note, many of these talents are pretty transparently analogues to some of the better known D&D Feats.Next up is Powers. Powers are the core of the HERO System's storied robustness and infamous complexity. Essentially a meta-language for describing and assigning points to game mechanics to accomplish just about any imaginable effect, Powers are most often used in Fantasy settings to model Magic, Psionics, and special abilities like Breath Weapons and the like. This section goes into some considerations of how various Powers interact with the Fantasy Genre. I thought this section did a pretty good job of touching on the basics and drawing out some common things like Detect Magic, and how to do boosting effects like Potions of Giant Strength and so forth.The next two sections cover Power Modifiers. Powers can be modified in good ways which also increase their cost (Advantages), or in bad ways which decrease their cost (Limitations). These sections do a good job all around. Some new and useful bits like the "Mobile" option for Areas of Effect, a long look at Focus, and the expansions of the general Limited Power to include Ritual and Window of Opportunity are all very valuable. There are also some small tidbits of note here and there too, such as a blurb on using AoE for effects that would normally require Usable By Others, the Complex options for Incantations and Gestures, and the Voice Rance variant of Incantations. Good stuff!Next up is Disadvantages. In the HERO System characters can (and in some cases must) take Disadvantages that apply to their character, which in turn yield extra character points to get useful things with. Disadvantages cover the gamut, but range from things like pronounced quirks that affect behaviour to being Unlucky, having a Dependency on something, Berserk fits, purely physical downfalls like having one eye, and distinctive appearances. Not much new in this secion, just a general and concise treatment. Fortunately its a perfunctory few pages.Moving on we come to Fantasy Equipment List. This section is short, but crucial as its page after page of price lists for items. On a side note, the prices are generally silver based rather than gold, which I like; makes for a much more granular economy. Chapter 3: Combat & Adventuring. Ah yes, the "guts" of the book if you will. This section covers using the HERO System Combat System for Fantasy games of all levels of grittynes. It's a veritable cournacopia of options, ideas, and suggestions. It even calls itself out in places, pointing out where the nature of the system may cause unforeseen issues at certain levels of play; case in point is the way STUN works in the HERO System basically means that opponents (and the Heroes!) are more likely to be knocked out than they are to be killed, and about a page of options for correcting for that if desired. There's also a goodly bit of coverage of injury and recovery of wounds. All in all a good section.Followed appropriately enough by the weapons chart. The Weapons chart presented is generally passable. Some have quibbled over it, and I myself use my own variant weapons system in my games, but this list is perfectly functional even though some weapons are pretty clearly advantaged over other ones (but then who said all weapons must be equal anyway?).  Several pages of exposition about the weapons follows, and then true to form several pages of options follow that, giving suggestions for how a GM can tailor weapons lists and the like in their own setting to suit whatever preferences they have. A Masterwork analouge is also present (though in typical HERO System fashion, it's much more expansive), and a section on the pros and cons of different fighting methods. And finally more combat options follow for a few more pages. This is a great section of the book, however I thought it could have been better organized for flow; as it is the section doesnt really read straight thru and feels more like a reference section.Next up, unsuprisingly, is Armor. This section is to armor what the above was to weapons, giving a list, and then many variants and options to suit. The only major difference is it's much more concise, only taking a few pages.Next up is the Mass Combat rules. This was one of the things (and in fact the most significant) that was bounced off of the "Advisory Board" prior to the playtest; in fact a couple of my suggestions actually saw print, so thats kind of cool. However, overall Im not fond of this Mass Combat System and wrote my own. Nevertheless, it's perfectly serviceable and sure to be useful to many GM's wanting to run mass battles relatively quickly.Chapter 4: This brings us to the Magic Systems section. This is where the book transcends into the upper echelon of gaming product for me. For the first time that Im aware of, a Game System basically says, "Roll your own Magic System, and it's just as valid as anything we could come up with". It provides a tremendous amount of information on things to consider when defining Magic in general and Magic Systems both. It also presents 12 different sample Magic Systems, some of which are extremely cool (I think "The Gift" is the best-of-set personally). This section is also somewhat serviceable to non HERO System GM's as an idea source. I thought the Magic Item treatment was a bit weak in comparison, but really, at this scale thats just nitpicking. This Chapter is the pinnacle of the book in my opinion.Chapter 5: Fantasy Worlds and Races. This is the World Building section. It's pretty comprehensive overall. I still prefer my old beat up copy of Campaign Sourcebook/Catacomb Guide from AD&D, but this is an excellent treatment of the subject as well. I tend to gloss over things like this anymore as it's rarely anything new for me, but this should be very helpful to many GM's. It also has a few useful tidbits tucked here and there likea Cargo Price List, a Technology Table broken down by year range, and a Travel table. Everything from Geography to Government to Religion is covered, with some useful Economy guidance for good measure.Chapter 6: GMing FH. This is another generally useful section to HERO Gamers and non-HERO Gamers. Just a straightforward coaching section for GM's it hits the highpoints and calls out some gotchas. It also has some value-added bennies like a Random Plot Generator, some Trap examples, a Secret & Concealed Doors mod list, and a listing of Doors and other Fantasy Objects info for purposes of breaking. Again, this section is old hat to many veteran GM's, but likely helpful to many others.A section of Villains and NPCs is worth noting as a useful primer for GM's that don't have the knack for making memorable opponents for their games.Chapter 7: The shortest chapter by far, this section is mostly made up of sample characters and villains. The least useful section for me, I at least know why it was included for completionist sake. Ill avoid commenting further on this section. Finally a lengthy Bibliography (and at no extra charge a short Cinematography as well), followed by an Appendix containing four Base write ups. Base write ups are always useful, so good value added there. And of course the trademarked DOJ Index at the end, particularly handy for a manuscript of this size.In summary, Fantasy HERO is a huge book covering a broad range of Fantasy related topics, with a mix of textual exposition and mechanics. It is very "toolboxy" with many variants and options provided. Many sections are highly minable for general concepts, and useful "things to consider" are strewn liberally throughout the book.All in all, while there are some things I would prefer were done differently, they are easily overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the book. I would highly recommend it to any Gamer interested in running the HERO System for the Fantasy Genre, and somewhat recommend it to GM's that are looking for general world design and Magic System design concepts.An excellent value and a-sure-to-be-referenced-in-years-to-come addition to almost any Fantasy RPG collection.</blockquote>

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