One thing I REALLY liked about HERO over D&D

[MerricB]

Maybe it's just me. What's "categlor"? I can't make that sentence make sense.

Catalogue.

Cheers!

 

[barsoomcore]

*squints, trying to see the pattern in all the dots*

Okay, I think I get it. Thanks.

Everyone, go on with your discussion. Pay no attention to me.

 

[Umbran]

Unlike D&D, HERO is not predecated on existence of a balanced team of specific niches; if you are playing free form, there are no specific roles to fill.

A bit late to hop in on this point, but I have to disagree with you. The roles still exist, both in terms of what's tactically necessary and what people generally gravitate towards playing. It is just that various systems allow you different ways to fill them.

This can be seen in how Arcana Unearthed differs from D&D. Monte Cook spent some time thinking aobut the roles that generally need to be filled, and the roles people tend to want to play, and designed a slightly different system to allow you to access those same roles.

Doesn't matter if you're playing D&D, Arcana Unearthed, WW Storyteller, GURPS, or what have you. If it's an action/adventure game (be it sci-fi, fantasy, supers, or some other genre), if someone doesn't take a front line combatant, there's likely to be issues. And similarly, in any bunch of gamers, you're likely to find someone who wants to play the front line combatant.

 

[Goblyn]

Power Critical from MoTW: Once per day you can declare a strike a critical threat.

Power Critical from Complete Warrior: +4 to confirm criticals.

I believe that the feat is now made of spongy rubbery substance.

buzzard

I can add a few.

-Greatly reduced buff spell duration
-Spider Climb being upped to 2nd level
-a limit of +10 worth of bonuses on magical weapons
-a limit of +5 inherent ability score bonuses
-sorcerers EVER needing material components for their spells
-potions only holding 1-3d level spells

that's all I can think of for now. I know these all are balance issues, but that's the point. Munchkinning aside, these are in place only for balance, if any reason is given at all.

 

[Ozmar]

1 - d20 has some wonderful support, but it also has some real crappy support as well. In all, I would say there's an even amount of both. Hero has a a steady stream of books and a weekly update on their page. Plus, Steve Long, author of 5th ed Hero, regularlly visits the boards and holds a weekly chat to field questions and comments.

Really? I did not know that, seing as how I do not regularly play HERO.

I was about to add that even crappy support is better than no support at all, but I guess HERO has more support than I thought.

How about my other objection: Is there campaign support? i.e., if I wanted to sit down and play HERO next week, is there a campaign setting I could pull off the shelf and run using that ruleset? Or would I have to modify a campaign setting from another system or make up my own setting?

Ozmar the Curious

 

[Zappo]

Power Critical from MoTW: Once per day you can declare a strike a critical threat.

Power Critical from Complete Warrior: +4 to confirm criticals.

-Greatly reduced buff spell duration
-Spider Climb being upped to 2nd level
-a limit of +10 worth of bonuses on magical weapons
-a limit of +5 inherent ability score bonuses
-sorcerers EVER needing material components for their spells
-potions only holding 1-3d level spells

Good, that's what I was looking for. I don't own CW. The power critical is a good example of a cool feat that's been reduced to uncoolness. It was overpowered; I know because characters have been taking it in my campaigns, and controlling when you crit is far too good an ability. So it's a reasonable change, and good grounds for the discussion about whether they should have left it even if it is overpowered, adding an appropriate remark. But that's one thing... anything else?

The buffs IMO weren't cool. They were just powerful, a mechanical bonus, not too much exciting. That's just me, of course. BTW, I think they could have stayed the same, they weren't a big problem.

As for the rest... I'm fairly certain that most of these have been so since 3.0? Sorcerers actually have it easier now to avoid spell components, since Eschew is no longer metamagic.

 

[PCD]

One the things that started to really irk me about D&D...and it was slowly creeping into WotC's best product: Modern, was the many D&Disms or as they are sometimes called "Sacred Cows".

There is a phenomena that is quickly becoming a "Sacred Cow" and Psion pointed that out at the start of this thread: Online fans have an opinion, there appears to be some kind of consensus or widespread support of said opinion and some R&D team changes the books to fit that "demand". This has not only become a new habit, but also one that puts us in the Catch 22 dilemma of do we silence these people or do we update (and buy new) our books every two or three years. It is a Sacred Cow because no one wants to take the step of filtering the community opinions.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

How about my other objection: Is there campaign support? i.e., if I wanted to sit down and play HERO next week, is there a campaign setting I could pull off the shelf and run using that ruleset? Or would I have to modify a campaign setting from another system or make up my own setting?

For Champions, Millennium City isn't a full-fledged campaign, but it is a very fleshed-out city around which a campaign can be built. It has the city, tons of npc's, and several plotlines to choose from.

Champions Universe fleshes out the official Champions campaign setting (more macro level than Millennium City). It includes a timeline (when did supers appear, etc.), short descriptions of various organizations - government, law-enforcement, and villainous groups - and write-ups for several villains and heroes. Between this book and Millennium City, you'd have a complete campaign.

Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks is your typical enemies book, with close to 100 villains.

Viper: Coils of the Serpent fleshes out this criminal organization, with its history, goals, methods, agents, and equipment. It includes a ton of plot seeds for using Viper in a campaign.

Until: Defenders of Freedom does for this law-enforcement agency what the Viper book does for that group.

Champions Battlegrounds has five scenarios, which can be run separately or as a unit.

For Fantasy Hero, Turakian Age should be published soon (within the next month, I believe).

Monsters, Minions, and Marauders is a creature book for Fantasy Hero.


Hero should be releasing several more items this year. How's that for support...

 

[Goblyn]

The buffs IMO weren't cool. They were just powerful, a mechanical bonus, not too much exciting. That's just me, of course. BTW, I think they could have stayed the same, they weren't a big problem.

As for the rest... I'm fairly certain that most of these have been so since 3.0? Sorcerers actually have it easier now to avoid spell components, since Eschew is no longer metamagic.

You are right that they've been that way since 3.0. My point was that these things are slated as such for mechanical balance, and nothing else. The only one of them that I disliked was the buff change across the board, because while I see the argument for not wanting the level 2 spell to last all day, [sarcasm] as horrible as that would be[/sarcasm], it makes the spells much less useful out of combat, since, say, the time taken during a diplomatic parley oftimes is going to be a lot longer than the 1 minute/level duration of eagle's splendor. Oh, well. I guess that is what extend spell and persistant spell are for.

 

[MerricB]

I guess that is what extend spell and persistant spell are for.

And magic items. Indeed, that is really what magic items are for.

Cheers!