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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 1485229" data-attributes="member: 2804">HERO is my favorite system outside of d20. It has some strengths and some weaknesses.Strengths:1) You can craft a campaign to be EXACTLY the way you want. For example, you can make your own magic system for a fantasy game. You can completely define the feel of your campaign setting. Whether you like high magic or low magic, or something in between, you can build it exactly to your specifications. You can make your game cinematic or gritty. You can have high powered PCs, or low powered ones. Its all up to you and the game runs perfectly smooth at any power level.2) Its all in one book. Technically everything you need to play HERO forever is in the main 5th edition hardcover rulebook. 5th edition is also much better written than the 4th edition rulebook. I also strongly recommend buying Sidekick. Sidekick is a slimmed down HERO system rulebook that you can buy for only 10 dollars!  Its a great way to introduce yourself to the system if you are leary of paying 40 for the main book and you aren't sure you will like the game. Sidekick is also great to have extra copies of at the game table. Its cheap enough that all your players can easily afford their own copy.3) Its multi-genre friendly. You can play Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Space Opera, Super Heroes, you name it. All with the same rules and even the same characters if you wanted! Its easy to do cross-genre games such as Palladium's RIFTS with the HERO rules.Weaknesses1) Learning curve. HERO can be quite complex for some people. There is a lot of math and calculation of points, etc. If you like to tweak with systems and characters, then this system is for you. If you want a system that just blends into the background and allows you to start playing right away, then HERO is not for you. Although, the more experience you are with it, the more it does blend into the background.2) DM setup time. HERO requires a large initial investment from the GM or DM before you can play. If you are a tinkerer and want to completely design your campaign world down to the smallest bit of flora and fauna then HERO is for you. If you don't want to custom design your own campaign setting, and want to be able to use a number of premade settings, or be able to easily port over existing settings using other rules with a minimum of fuss, then HERO may not be for you. Although, HERO is powerful enough that if you spend the time and you know what you are doing, you can emulate any other setting from books, movies, or other RPG companies pretty much exactly as originally portrayed.3) Combat can be slow. HERO combat be quite slow and complex. Especially the first several times you play. It speeds up once you have played several times and start to remember all the different numbers and different types of combat actions you can take. Just be sure to have a hex map, a calculater, and the entire combat section of your book bookmarked whenever a fight breaks out.Neutral1) HERO games makes a lot of great supplements that prestat out a lot things you will run into when playing. If you don't mind buying some extra books, you will save A LOT of setup time. In fact, their genre books are packed full of great advice even if you aren't going to use HERO rules for your game. The drawback is of course, that buying a lot of extra books is necessary to save yourself a lot of setup time. You can buy books with prestatted vehicles, monsters, superpowers, spells, gadgets, and even a couple campaign settings.2) HERO combat is both tactical and cinematic. To me this is an advantage. I love tactical combat. I love planning my character's every move in a battle. I also love combat that can be cinematic. For example, in a superhero game its just awesome when some big bad Hulk-like villain picks up a car, swings it at you and sends you flying back through three brick walls!! HERO not only handles these sorts of maneuvers with a high level or rules detail, but also with a very cool cinematic feel.The drawback is combat can be slow. Especially if the group is inexperienced or there are a large number of combatants.</blockquote>

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