Hero System

by Steven S. Long

Book Overview

The Ultimate Gamer's ToolkitWidely regarded as the best roleplaying game system ever created, the HERO System has become even better with this Revised version of the 5th Edition rules Unlike any other... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583660003
• ISBN13: 9781583660003
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Hero Games
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 2.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.4" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

If you're thinking about buying Dungeons & Dragons OR any other RPG...

Don't. I have been playing roleplaying games since the 1970s and have played with dozens of systems. This one beats them all. It is good whether you want to play fantasy or sci-fi, superheroes or cyberpunk, horror or western. The flexibility and elegance of this game is awesome. You don't randomly roll up a character like in other games - you have a set number of points to buy the skills and abilities you want - so you can play *exactly* the character you want. You don't even need to play a whole lot of adventures to "level" your character, after each game you get points which you can put right back into your character to and immeiately see an improvement. All you need is this book, and a little imagination, and you can play any genre. No need to buy a buch of seperate books for players, GMs, etc. No need to buy a bunch of odd shaped dice (all you need are the standard 6 sided dice you already have in your Monopoly set). Highly recommended!

Best RPG of all time

Hero System 5th Edition is the cumination of all the Hero supplements for the Champions system. Hero System is a point based system with levels and classes (though classes can be customized if needed). Any genre, time period, character type, or anything else can be done n Hero System. The system is a bit complex for new role-players but with some reading and practice, new players will have a great time. Combat can be slow but the resolution of combat, damage, etc can really low it down if players aren't familiar with it. From my experience, an average combat scene lasts 30 minutes. Skills are resolved much faster but it does have realistic factors involved like rushing and distractions. As said earlier, Hero can recreate anything: wizards from fantasy novels, weapons from SF films, or powers from comic books. Even original ideas can be done once a player knows what to look for in creating it. The GM will have a hard time running a game if they have to create the game world from scratch but Hero Games does produce supplements that provide that material for use or even act as a guideline for creating your own worlds, magic systems, etc. All in all, experienced players will like the generic system while new players may be intimidated but it can be learned.

FREd is your friend

The HERO System Fifth Rules Edition (FREd for short) is the definitive edition of a game system with more than 20 years of history behind it. (Some might know the HERO System as "Champions, the Superheroic Roleplaying Game!") The HERO System is the king of point based Game Systems. Instead of a class + level structure like D & D and it's many imitators, in the HERO System a player has a certain number of points (varying by genre and power level) with which to buy characteristics, skills, special abilities, and so forth. It's purpose is to allow a GM to run any genre, any point level, any time period with one set of consistent rules. It's very doable to take a normal fellah from a modern world campaign into a supers or space empire game and vice versa without missing a beat if you wanted to, but more importantly once the GM and players have learned the rules system, then rather than having to learn an entirely different rules system to play some other game, they can just adapt the good bits of the other game and run it in the HERO System instead. It's point based open framework set up allows this to work. The key to any point based system is balancing abilities costs against their benefits so that one character's x points of y is equivalent in usefulness to another character's x points of z, and the HERO System does an excellent job of this essential internal balancing. The strength of a point based system is greater flexibility in design; the weakness is that lacking GM oversight unscrupulous and ignorant players alike can come up with some pretty abusive characters. Thus the game takes a little bit of GM monitoring of character desing to work correctly. Where the HERO System really excels however is that instead of having a lot of prepackaged abilities on a set list, it instead has a mechanic based upon the idea of reasoning from effects and then using a collection of base game mechanics modified to express that concept in game terms. Thus rather than having umpteen abilities that all do the same general sort of damage the HERO System instead types damage into the broad groups of Energy, Physical, Mental, Flash, and Power damage, (Physical and Energy is also broken down further into "Normal" damage and "Killing" damage), and then provides a single base mechanic for each which is purchased in die amounts, and modified by various advantages and limitations to behave in ways appropriate to a desired effect. So as an example a crusty mercenary in a gritty space campaign might have several types of guns, a wizard in a fantasy campaign might have several offensive spells, and a fire projector in a superhero game might have super powers all based on the same base power, "Ranged Killing Attack", just modified appropriately to model their respective game effects. To continue the example the guns of the merc might have a variety of advantages like "Autofire", "Armor Piercing", and "Explosion" as good things, and limitations like "Charges", and

Quite possibly the greatest RPG system... ever...

There are some who hate it, and there are some who love it--I am one of those who fall on the "love it" side. The system does have its flaws (for example, having several different task resolution systems), but in my opinion, the system's strengths outweigh its weaknesses hands down.The Hero System is a multi-genre roleplaying game engine written by Steven Long, based on an original design by Steve Peterson and George McDonald. This is the long-awaited Fifth Edition, and is the most definitive edition of this game yet. One of the criticisms of previous editions of the system (which was purportedly a "Universal" game system like GURPS) was that it looked and felt like a superhero game that was trying to be a universal game system. The Fifth Edition has some changes (mostly in the Skills and Talents sections) that make it more palatable for use in multi-genre gaming. It's now a major contender with GURPS for the Universal Game System title.If you've spent your formative years (as I have) daydreaming about adventures featuring heroes of your own creation, then this is the game system for you.Also, if you're the kind of gamer that likes to take a peek under the hood to see all the gears and gizmos inside a game system, and likes to tinker with the game system to see what it can do, then this is the game system for you. Unlike most systems that attempt to hide its game engine, the Hero System proudly shows off all of its gears and gizmos, like one of those model cars with the transparent hood to demonstrate how the engine inside works.The system is based on a complex point-based system for character creation, and points can be spent for Characteristics, Skills, Perquisites (Perks), Talents, and, finally, Powers. This point-based system means that you can (within the point limits set by your GameMaster) create exactly the hero *you* want to play. The system started as the superhero game Champions, so it is in the Powers systems that the game really shines, and is in fact the one area that the Hero System stands out from its competitors: nearly any effect can be created using the Power system with a little imagination. What sets it apart is the concept of "Special Effects"--the Powers listed in the book are only game effects; the player decides what the power looks and sounds like. For example, buy some levels in a Power called "Energy Blast," define that it looks and sounds like lightning, and voila! you have a lightning blast, ready to strike down evil in the name of JUSTICE!!! :)However, this power-creation system is not limited to super-powers: it can be used to create the magic spells of a fantasy campaign; the gadgets, weapons, and weird alien abilities of a science fiction campaign; or even the ninja abilities of a chambara campaign--it really is only limited only by your own imagination.Combat in the Hero System can be long and slow, but I've seen battles last for only a few minutes. Tweaking the defenses of a couple of minor villai