Hero System books?

[pauljathome]

The kind of game i'm looking to play would be for my kids who like City of Heroes. So, a small amount of time for character setup and a quick rule system for resolving things. Unfortunately, I think that rules out Gurps. Great system, but very fiddly.

I'd recommend Mutants and Masterminds (perhaps in its DC Adventures incarnation). It is a LOT less fiddly than either Gurps or Hero.

Its very, very easy to make "normal" super heroes (ie, most of the stock ones in the comics) with enough flexibility to make more complicated ones if you want.

It also runs fairly simply (roll a D20, roll high ) while having support for mosst of the weirdness characters can get into.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Agreed, HERO is very, very flexible and plays well at the table, but requires a great deal of effort in character creation. I find the effort pays off, but I can easily understand that it's not everyone's cup of tea. Once characters have been created, I find the system much easier to run than 3.x - very standardized rules, with many fewer fiddly bits.

My take on HERO's "fiddlyness" is this:

1) PCGen involves a lot of decisionmaking because there are probably 50 different ways to do anything

2) PCGen involves a lot of math, but it's all addition, subtraction multiplication and division...some of which is handled on charts.

This can be a bit..."stormy" for some players, but once you get past PCGen, though, it is almost like hitting calm seas. 90% of everything you need to play the game will be on your character sheets; you almost never touch the books during game play.

 

[Bagpuss]

The kind of game i'm looking to play would be for my kids who like City of Heroes. So, a small amount of time for character setup and a quick rule system for resolving things. Unfortunately, I think that rules out Gurps. Great system, but very fiddly.

It would definitely rule out Champions then, Hero System is considerably more complex in character generation. In play it isn't too bad once you get your head round the stun/kill damage system.

To be fair the times I've played Hero System the GM has basically asked the players what sort of characters they would like to play and what powers they would like, and then designed the basic character for them, then tinkered with it until they were happy. It does take a good bit of system knowledge to make a character, but not as much to play one.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Two $40 books (before you even have the setting) are hardly very little. It's kind of the problem D&D suffers from a bit.

I was talking in terms of # of books. Prior to 6th, all you needed was the one book. In 6th, just 2.

For me, the setting books were like any others- a convenience, but toot ally unnecessary. If you've ever been a fan of superheroes and read comics, you simply don't need 6th's setting book for a supers campaign.

Hell- in all honesty, the ONLY reason I buy stuff like Fantasy Hero, Star Hero and the others is simply as a catalog of stuff statted out for use. The settings...the fluff...all basically useless to me. I just used the system for a huge variety of homebrews.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Icons
BASH (Basic Action Super Heroes)
Mutants & Masterminds 3e (crunchier than the other two, but I like it enough to recommend it)
Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion (if you're already using Savage Worlds; other wise, go for one of the previous choices)