Fantasy Hero

[Mark Chance]

The only thing wrong with the Hero is its combat system. If a large-scale combat, with many PCs fighting many NPCs, takes a long time in d20, the same combat under the Hero system proceeds at glacial speeds.

 

[Aaron2]

Fantasy Hero is my second choice for games. I'm very familiar with it and champions so running the game isn't too bad. I found that if the DM makes all the player's characters from a short write-up, many of the metagaming problems with the point system go away. In fact, the character sheet I give players doesn't have a single point value written on it. They just tell me what they are training and I tell them when they have enough XP to pay for it. It worked really well, even with non-gamers. The magic system (or lack thereof) was the big kicker. Even the newest version doesn't address this. Plus, I was never really comfortable with potions costing character points.


Aaron

 

[Sir Whiskers]

I have most of the new books, but I've yet to convince my current group to give it a try (suggested it to our current gm, but another player wanted DnD - oh well...)

If you're serious about running a campaign, I recommend the Hero Designer program. It is not intuitive, but it's very flexible. It will dramatically cut the time you spend creating everything from npc's, to creatures, to spells, to equipment.

 

[Black Omega]

I'll happily pimp Fantasy Hero, it's an excellent system with great flexibility. Considering my 3.5 game as a samurai flying around and is only 13th level, I'd say the super hero element comes in just as fast in d20 as in Fantasy Hero.

 

[Dragonblade]

I have the new Fantasy HERO and HERO 5th edition. You need both books together and even then its only a toolkit to help you build your own fantasy world and campaign.

You also pretty much have to buy the HERO System Bestiary and the Grimoire, or you are looking at a lot of work to play and run a standard fantasy game. Even more work if you have some unique vision for your world that you want to realize through the HERO rules.

And like one poster said, character creation is very number heavy and prone to min-maxing, and combat is slower than d20.

IMO, the advantage of HERO, its flexibility and customizability are both its strength and its weakness. It can do anything you want it to do. But it will take you a lot of work and time to make it do what you want it to do.

As a toolkit I think it is an invaluable resource for my d20 game, but ultimately, I prefer the d20 ruleset for actual gameplay.

 

[Desdichado]

Creating magic systems from scratch is always a lot of work, but in HERO it's a LOT of work. In 3E it's just a lot of work.

Of course, in d20 you can just pick up somebodies alternate magic system and use it. I like Midnight, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars (force powers), Wheel of Time, the Elements of Magic, Sovereign Stone, etc.

 

[barsoomcore]

Of course, in d20 you can just pick up somebodies alternate magic system and use it. I like Midnight, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars (force powers), Wheel of Time, the Elements of Magic, Sovereign Stone, etc.

Geez, where's the fun in that?

 

[Kichwas]

Which means there are, really, only about five stats most people wind up with: 10, 13, 15, 18 and 20.

Actually it's more likely to be 8, 13, or 18. Other values are usually wasted.

For Dex 14, 17 and 20 can be handy 'just to be different'.

That said, other aspects of the Hero system work better at the fantasy level than they do at the super hero level.

 

[The Souljourner]

Since you say this, I'll assume you've already got the HERO System main book - either the BBB or the new FREd edition.

Yup, I've had Champions (4th edition) for a long time, and recently (a few months ago) got 5th edition.

That said, it can work great for a fantasy game - provided the DM is willing to do a lot of work beforehand setting up the way magic works, etc.

What problems specifically do you think you'd have? It might be more useful to provide a concrete example, but I'll bet FH addresses them.

Well, basically having to build an entire RPG out of the hero rules is the problem. Having to determine if a longsword should do 1d6 killing or 5d6 killing. How about a greatsword? A dagger?

The down and dirty basics are what I didn't want to have to create. Sure, you can take the Hero System rules and run a fantasy campaign with them, but if you don't have any guidelines, one guy's "greatsword" will do 2d6 and another guy's will do 6d6.

I don't mind setting up a magic system of some sort, or even a couple... I just don't want to have to make up every single crappy generic monster from scratch.

Sounds like with the Bestiary and Grimoire, I'll get a lot of what I don't want to have to build from scratch.

Question - is endurance really used in FH? That was one of the things I always felt was a pain about non-superhero games using Hero rules... you have to keep track of so much stuff, even when all you're doing is moving and attacking.

And BTW, for a mostly D20 board, I got a lot of good answers. I guess I probably would have gotten a lot more answers off a Hero board, but they would primarily hero players, and since I'm primarily a D&D player, I think I got more honest answers here.

-The Souljourner

 

[Eosin the Red]

I like Hero but generally run fantasy in any system but Hero. Players that do not need a bazillion skills, perks, and talents quickly end up going the expediant route....Dex 20, SPD 5, then everything into Overall Skill levels.

Supers and Modern in does one hell of a job and is my game of choice.