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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 2856618" data-attributes="member: 8158">Wow, that's a statement that's certain to be contested. I wound up house-ruling my HERO system game to hell and back, and it wasn't because I have a passion for devising house rules. HERO has many exploitable mechanics that its designers have been well aware of since the 1980's, and yet they leave them in place because of some arbitrary concepts that they hold up as unassailable principles (when they're actually just personal aesthetics). For instance, buying 5 pts Strength pays for itself in figured characteristics, so it's almost a form of self-induced handicap to not to be somewhat super-strong. Not only that, but since you get 10 points of STR for free, bricks get an extra +2d6 damage gratas. Haymakering  makes the damage potential even more gross. Then there's the craziness with leaping distance being a figured attribute, but not running distance, so you can wind up with all these super-strong characters hopping around everywhere like jumping beans.But none of that will ever be addressed because the boys at HERO think that their system reached a state of near perfection in 1982, and maintaining a 1-for-1 point cost ratio for Strength meshes with their precious principle that all attack powers should cost 5 pts for 1d6 (or 1 Damage Class). They can't convince themselves to make an exception even when it's badly needed. Fifth addition introduced a few neat new things, such as fixed-point add-ons replacing all those little +1/4 advantages certain powers had, but for the most part the system isn't nearly as polished as it needs to be. Disadvantages are another area that clearly need some restructuring. There is no distinction between disads that have immediate, quantifiable ramifications (Berserk, Susceptability, Vulnerability, Unluck) and those that are at best indirectly dangerous (Dependents, Distinctive Features, Psychological Limitations). So it's quite common to see characters loaded up on nickel-and-dime disads.Ultimately, the only viable counter to all of this is that it's up to the players to exercise restraint, and it's up to the GM to decide what players can and can't have. In other words, after all the math and complex rules, we're relying on the honor system even moreso than other games. Which makes all of the complexity pointless. All too often I've seen the low-power characters with interesting concepts wind up being far more cost-prohibitive than a simple, straightforward damage factory.EDIT--Oh, and I almost forgot to mention Knockback. HERO's Knockback rules got old real fast a long, long time ago. They really needed to come up with a better solution than selling characters Knockback Resistance.</blockquote>

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