The HERO System 6th Edition brings new levels of flexibility and creativity to the acclaimed HERO System, allowing players to create any sort of character, power, gadget, spell, vehicle, monster, or weapon they can think of. Whatever you want to do, in any genre, setting, or time period, the HERO System 6th Edition rules will let you do it! HERO System 5th Edition Writing and Design: Steven S. HERO System 4th Edition Design: George MacDonald, Steve Peterson and Rob Bell.
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It's still the Hero ruleset, and the two editions have more in common than not. However, there are some significant changes in mechanics. Between those changes and the writing of the sourcebooks (even more laborious than in 5th ed), the 'feel' of the game has been somewhat affected, in my opinion. To summarize before I start rambling, 6th is a very sensible, smoothly playable iteration of the Hero rules with some nice additions and clarified mechanics, but I still get more enjoyment out of earlier editions, including 5th (soooo many great sourcebooks) and even 4th (before the books were written in a dry, monotonous tone).
6th also deserves mention for squeezing A LOT of rules into the two core books, including rules that in previous editions were found in non-core supplements.The biggest changes would likely be the lack of figured characteristics in 6th and the changes in measurements from 'inches' to standard yards. Every characteristic is bought up independently and directly, even characteristics (like CV) that in previous editions were derived from primary characteristics. It might take some getting used to and does change some of the flavor of character generation, but it's a fairly easy change to wrap one's brain around. The change in movement units seems huge at first until you remember that each 'inch' was simply two yards, so in 6th all distances, measurements, and movement rates are doubled from previous editions.There are lots of repricing, renaming, and reorganizing of abilities, including powers, talents, modifiers, and others. Most of this is logical and well explained by the text but some of this tinkering feels nitpicky, cranky, and tedious. There are changes/clarifications to how strength adds to combat damage as well, but that's explained as well as it has ever been explained.
The change to the suggested way to make combat roles is stunningly awful. It is pointless and counter-intuitive while offering no new utility. It is literally the same calculation/mechanic as in previous editions but the method of rolling/reading the results that the book suggests for GMs and players is probably the most absurdly obtuse way to possibly adjudicate the Hero combat roll.The major problem is that the dry, monotonous, overly-explanatory tone of the 5th edition is in overdrive in 6th. Even as someone who loves Hero and enjoys reading rules and mechanics, I found the two core books to be dry and dull. Not difficult, but dull. In fact, that's the problem.
The book spends so much time minutely defining every aspect and possible facet of even straightforward and simple rules that it becomes kind of a chore. Hero is a fun, dynamic system full of amazing storytelling possibilities, but this was written with all the verve of a phone book. Champions Complete (which uses the 6th ruleset) was a little better written but I like my universal games to be universal. Maybe the upcoming Fantasy Hero Complete book will be well written and interesting (but holy crap, the 6th ed Fantasy Hero just didn't feel worth the cost, as that book seriously lacked substance).In short, 6th presents some solid improvements and I don't see anything really wrong with it, but I still prefer 4th as my core with added material from 5th and 6th as I need it. It's just more fun.
Maybe 6th or the Hero Complete line will be fun for you? Champions Complete might be something that interests you as a fairly straightforward and low-cost/low-risk way to check the edition out.
's post is excellent, but I would put it this way: 'don't bother.' I'm pretty disappointed in Hero Games' approach - they aren't doing well, and their strategy seems to be making nearly meaningless changes for the new edition as an excuse to require fans (like me) to shell out the money for two core books (and maybe fool those fans into buying an updated enemies book or two) all while falling way behind in production value and missing entirely the current trend of streamlined games that are faster-paced and have appeal beyond math majors.So stick with 5.
There's nothing so wrong with it that Hero Games felt was worth fixing. I would call it an error to think the major changes from 5th to 6th were meaningless.
Right, wrong, or indifferent - there were done for specific reasons to address weaknesses the owners had identified (or, in some cases, potentially misidentified) in their product.Most of the power cost changes were to address balance issues the designer felt needed addressing. The biggest change - uncoupling secondary (and tertiary) characteristics from primary one - was intended to make character creation less counter-intuitive to new players. I would argue that this was not a necessary change, but I'm not the owners - maybe they get different feedback than what I hear (but, even though I didn't agree with this change, I fully understand the reasoning behind it). The change in characteristic costs was necessary after making secondary characteristics no longer figured from primaries.
(sorry I couldn't respond right away - probably should just let you have the last word, but.)There's more than one reason Mutants & Masterminds is outselling Hero System (and landed the DC licence): production value is issue one, though, with Green Ronin producing very attractive books in full color and with great artwork. Compare that to Hero Games' black and white, text-heavy drudgery with some small amount of new artwork (but too many hoary 80's and 90's pics) and the Hero stuff doesn't ask for a second look on the game store shelf. Say what you will about flashiness, but if the game can't pick up new players, the publishers won't have the income to print new adventures, GM's screens, their own line of minis, etc.Then there's gameplay. Now, I want to be clear: I love the catharsis of rolling 12 dice for a brick's damage as much as anyone, and Hero's phase system is practically a necessity for reasonable miniatures rules on the tabletop (you can use minis with M&M, but many supers can move far beyond any game mat you can get your hands on in a 6-second round), but somewhere around hour three of you Hero campaign's introductory battle, anyone who's not a die-hard fan is going to wander over and turn on the TV.And character creation? Making a character for the Hero system is tedious.
And instead of streamlining it a bit more each edition, it just gets more arcane. I acknowledge that it's a big draw for the min-max crowd, but I wish Mr.
Long would pick his head up from his slide rule (trying to 'fix' the elemental control 'problem') long enough to see what a blast players of other games are having with their sloppy, imbalanced (but relatively quick) character creation.So all of this sounds like I'm knocking the Hero System, I know. But really all my frustration stems from the fact that I really enjoy the Hero System - but I'd like to see it start selling some books. I'd like to not have to tell new players that I'll have to make their first character for them because the game's not intuitive enough for them to get all the defenses they'll need to survive ('What do you mean, Power Defense? Bullets bounce right off me!' They say).