Capsule Review: HERO 5th Edition
"This is the edition that, we hope, is worthy of all your enthusiasm and
support over time. Thank you for staying with us as we journey into the
future of roleplaying. -- Steve Peterson's Credits (p. ii)
Who Should Read This Review
I've been a HERO gamer for some time (about 15 years). Please be aware that I
have that background, and that it heavily informs this review: if you've
never played the HERO system before, then you might only get use out of the
Summary below; or you might want to wait for a review from someone
else in your situation (first blush of the game).
Also, I haven't had the 5th ed. rules for that long yet, and haven't
playtested them yet. Accordingly this is *not* a detailed playtest review,
and is based on a single, not very thorough read through and comparison with
the 4th edition book. If you find that useful, all well and good--if you want
a definitive playtest report, or a more detailed and informed analysis of the
5th ed changes, then this review might not suit your needs.
Summary
By all accounts, the Fifth Edition of the HERO game system was a massive
effort, both to write and playtest, and to get into print. In fact, it took
the Author of the game's current version to collect investors and purchase
the assets of Hero Games in order to let this latest edition see the light of
day. The new edition is large, expensive, and if we are to believe Steve
Long's intent, definitive. But is it worth your time and money?
I believe that it is, if you're already a Champions/HERO gamer. This is most
likely going to be the final edition of the game, and from a preliminary
read, it does seem to have many of the warts and edges well filed down.
Those hoping for radical fixes or changes, however, are destined to be
forever disappointed. As will those who were hoping for anything essentially
new or innovative.
The HERO 5th edition is a solid,dependable European luxury sedan: a Volvo
S80, a BMW 5 series, a Saab 9-5, a Mercedes C class. In particular, it's
like the "redesign" that those models have made over their previous
incarnations. The HERO 5th edition is a top-flight, utilitarian rolegame with
lots of excellent engineering under the hood, a well designed power-train,
and safety and robustness that's proven the test of time. Flashy, it's
not. New-fangled, it's not. The future of roleplaying, sadly, it's not.
While WotC's redesign of D&D3E went the somewhat revolutionary route (a
lot of the same, but lots and lots of different), Steve Long and his
confederates had faith that they were refining what was in their opinion the
best existing set of rolegame mechanics. And you don't mess with a
winner.
Your opinion of this game is going to be largely informed by this
assumption: if you agree with Steve and other HERO fans that the existing
game was the pinnacle of rolegaming design, then you're most likely to fall
in love with HERO 5th edition. If, on the other hand, you had bones to pick
with this assumption (combat's too slow, stat costs are out of whack, there's
not enough skills, the disad system is silly and rewards point-monkeys, to
name a few), then it's highly unlikely that this new edition will be any more
attractive to you than fourth edition. In short: if forefront in your mind
was, "Why should I pay that ridiculous sum for a Volvo, or a Beemer, when I
could buy a Buick or a Passat or a Camry?", then this new edition of the
rules is not going to change your mind and make you rush out to buy the new
car. For those of us who feel in their bones that HERO is
one of the best driving experience on the road today, this new edition is
better, stronger, faster.
Style : 3 -- Everything's where you expect it and organised
for reference, but there's very little in the way of innovation here in
design, aesthetics, or new-fangled artistry. For those who share my growing
distaste for the emphasis on weapons 'n boobies in rolegames, the Style marks
could drop to a rather dismal 2.
Substance : 5 -- This is the edition of the HERO
mechanics. It is worth the upgrade price.
Terms Used
To be clear, I use some words and terms in my review that could be glossed
for explanation:
Steve
Steve Long is the primary author of this new edition. He is best known in
HERO circles for having given the HERO community Dark
Champions. With a few other people, he is now firmly in control of
HERO's direction, since he's in charge of the company that's now doing
business as Hero Games.
Hero Novice
A HERO novice is someone who's been playing HERO for a short period of time,
who perhaps has a copy of the rules, but who hasn't yet taken the time to
fully understand or appreciate the intricacies of the rules.
New Player
A new player is someone who has never played HERO before (or perhaps only
once or twice) and for whom this new edition will form an introduction to the
game entirely. It remains to be seen whether this new edition will attract a
significant number of these sorts of people.
Stop-Signed
Character traits that are stop-signed are marked in the rules with a little
stop sign to show that they could drastically affect a game if the GM doesn't
put a close watch on their use.
Evolution not revolution
The first thing anyone who picks up a HERO 5th edition hardcover is going to
notice is likely to be its utilitarian aspects. It's hefy and solid. It has a
strong, sewn binding. It has a no-nonsense layout, and a no-nonsense
cover. It is, in short, the Volvo of rolegames. (And like Volvo, no matter
how many sexy commercials with Sutherland voice overs they display on
television, the cars on the lot always seem to breathe that old Dudley-maxim
"Volvo: They're Boxy, but They're Safe!".)
The new edition adds a full one hundred and fifty pages onto the venerable
HERO 4th edition ruleset. So where are all the extra pages?
The Combat and Adventuring Section
Well, the combat rules nearly doubled in size (34 pages in H4, 64 pages in
H5), while retaining the same general organisation (essentially organised to
step you through the combat round from beginning to end).
The Before Combat section adds considerable explanation on how to
handle perception and sensing using both traditional (sight) and
non-traditional senses. Also useful is the addition here of a section on the
various factors that can affect sensation: adjustment powers, changed
environments, flashes, and so forth. What was two and a half pages in H4, is
now 6 pages in H5.
The Entering Combat section is a wonderful prototype of how this
edition is an improvement on the previous one. The Game Scale and Combat Time
subsections are essentially unchanged from H4. The Beginning Combat
subsection is vastly expanded, quadrupling (at least) in size: finally, we
have a taxonomy of action types, and exhaustive explanation of how they
differ from one another. In the past, it took most HERO gamers a reasonable
length of time before they fully understood the implications of the zero
phase action, and I know some regular players who still don't fully
understand what these implications are. Now it's all spelled out for you in
black and white. Lots of space is spent to explain action phases, sequencing,
holding actions, aborting actions, and so on. The Actions table is expanded,
filling in all the gaps found in the H4 rules set.
Mind you, some of the new Actions in the table border on the absurd: Change
Clothes, 1 phase. Huh? How many SPD 2 normals do you know who can
change they're clothes in six seconds. Some are, however, useful:
Start a Vehicle, 1/2 phase. For a SPD 2 normal, three seconds, that's about
right. And at least the HERO player now has a benchmark for some of these
common action types they can look to now.
The Movement subsection is expanded with additional notes on accounting for
the effects of gravity, acceleration, deceleration, strength, and obstacles
on movement. Vehicle movement includes explanations on handling mounted
movement: a welcome addition.
The meat of this chapter, the Combat rules themselves are again amplified for
clarity, but relatively unchanged from H4.
Bracing and Setting are now covered exclusively in the Manoeuvres table, and
not in the Modifiers table: a sensible change. There are some interesting
changes in the Manoeuvres available. Grab Bys have been added (one wonders
why not Grab Throughs?).
Haymakers have been drastically flattened ( 4 DCs instead of x1 1/2
STR). Your average Heroic character has a much more powerful haymaker now: an
H4 STR 10 character improved their 2D attack to 3D--now, the same character
improves their 2D attack to 4D (because of the fundamental cap on never being
able to more than double basic damage); an H4 STR 20 character improved their
4D attack to 6D--now, the same character improves their 4D attack to
8D. Superheroic characters, on the other hand, just don't have the same oomph
with haymakers. The quitessential H4 Brick of STR 60 had a 12D punch, and an
18D haymaker: now he has only a 12D punch and a 16D haymaker. The point of
diminishing marginal utility on the Haymaker is STR 40, a fact which directly
targets the venerable Brick for emasculation (this combined with a number of
other factors).
And a handful of new manoeuvres have been added. Nearly all of them to handle
gunfire: Blazing Away, Hipshot, Rapid Fire. But there's also useful things
like Club Weapon (hitting with the "flat" of a killing weapon), and Hurry
(boosting your DEX for initiative purposes at the cost of CV).
As well, the mechanics and descriptions of the Martial Manoeuvres have been
largely moved to this section of the rules where they belong, and out of the
skills section. Oddly enough, though, the MA Styles have been moved
here as well, and I can't help but feel that's an error, since that's
information that's really most relevant during character creation and not
during combat.
The sections detailing Damage and Damage Effects are largely unchanged;
however, the rules covering Adding Damage (for example, boosting damage
through combat manoeuvres) is expanded and clarified.
H5 adds a new section after the Damage sections called "Other Combat Effects"
housing a hodge podge of explanations: Inability to Sense An Opponent,
Breaking Out of Entangles and Grabs, Casual Strength, Missed and Random
Shots. I can't help but feel that these brief two pages would have been
better served by relocation elsewhere into more appropriate sections of the
text; perhaps the editorial team couldn't really think of better places to
put them?
The Recovery, Endurance, and Presence Attack sections remain largely
unchanged.
H5 moves the Characteristic Rolls section to the front, along with the
discussion of characterstics in character creation. This seems more suitable
for novice or new HERO players. Old hands have reference tables or formula
ingrained in their neural pathways already anyway.
The Environment
Where H4 had these sections as part of the Combat and Adventuring chapter, H5
moves it into a chapter on its own.
The falling rules have been amplified somewhat with the addition of an
section on optional velocity damage.
H5 adds new material on environmental effects (and welcome it is): now you
have guidelines in the core rules for dealing with dehydration, frostbite,
starvation, sunburn, and how Change Environment can affect environmental
effects. Following is the well-worn "Living in a Dangerous World" section
moved from the Champions sourcebook to the core rules (a good idea), although
why this couldn't have been folded into the "Environmental Effects" section
is beyond me. Also, still lacking is any treatment of the effects of
Vacuum. Hurm.
The venerable "Breaking Things" section is still here, as is
concealment. Still unchanged.
Finally, a two page "Animals" section rounds out the new environment
chapter. I'm of two minds about the two pages devoted here. On the one hand,
I suppose one must include something. On the other hand, what's
provided seems completely short-shrift: stats for a Black Bear, a Lion and a
Light Warhorse. Same as H4. At least you can't say that H5's (poor) treatment
of the subject is any worse than H4's (poor) treatment of it.
The good news is that Steve Long is currently putting the finishing touches
on the new HERO Bestiary, and it should see print before too long. Still, I
think he could have saved a couple pages here, but I suspect one of his firm
mandates was "thou shalt do nothing worse than H4". Fair enough.
Equipment
H5 collects automatons, vehicles, bases, and weaponry into this chapter, and
it seems like a good organisational move. None of the material seems to have
received any significant additional treatment from H5.
The Final Thirty-six Pages
H5 provides short chapters on GameMastering (including Experience), Changing
the Game's Rules, and some Designer Notes in the last thirty pages of the
book. I suppose this is obligatory, and it covers more ground than did H4;
however, it's not really high quality material. It's too abbreviated to be of
any real use, and I wonder at (with the exception of the Experience section)
the utility of including it in this book (could have expanded the Animals
section at the cost of some of these pages, easily). Still, none of this
material seems outright silly, and there are some useful and interesting
tidbits in here, so I shrug. Out of a 360 page rulebook, why not let the
designers have 10 percent of the pages to essentially give you a screed on
how they think the game should be played; really, no harm, no foul. The fact
that these pages are immediately flanked by (i) a dense, 12 page index, and
(ii) a photocopyable character sheet that's the last body page in the
book helps make up for the vanity of the "final thirty-six pages".
Where's the meat?
As I said, H5 adds about 160 pages to the core rules. While the "back half"
of the book adds some material, the greatest expansion is in the "front
half". The Character Creation chapter in H5 is just over 200 pages long,
compared to just over 100 pages in H4. Phew.
Some things I noticed right away:
-
Package Deals have moved to the front of the book, where they belong, but
they're now more expensive and are little more than templates.
-
Characteristic rolls, and the STR table have moved to the front of the book;
this is a good thing, in my opinion, as it's more understandable for novices
and those new to the system.
-
The mechanically useless COM appendage still exists and it still costs 1/2
point to increase. COM is, frankly, a wart and I should have thought that
Steve Long could have dispensed with it. But he didn't.
-
INT is still too cheap, and EGO still too expensive. With the massive
benefit to having a high INT (skill rolls, PER rolls) and the relatively
high cost of EGO (useful only for Ego based combat, really), I could have
hoped that Steve might have tried to be a bit radical here. But that
wouldn't have been inline with the overall design policy at work here. This
is still your father's Mercedes: INT is still a point per pip, and EGO is
still two per pip.
-
Steve Long seems to like guns. The addition of the AutoFire skills seem to
set up ridiculously expansive systems for handling modern gunfire. Still, my
campaigns have never been really gun-focussed, so you have to give "Mr. Dark
Champions" his due: the game's audience has been expanded, not contracted by
these additions, and those of us who don't fetishize on guns can't be all
that upset by it.
And it's in keeping with the philosophy of expanding HERO past is strong
roots as a "superhero" game: with the expanded gun rules (see the previous
comments of the combat rules as well), Steve is clearly making a stab at
pitching the game into the "Action Hero" market as well as the superhero
market. Gun Bunny players will no doubt be pleased.
-
Talents have been rationalized, for better or for worse; Steve has taken the
perhaps sensible approach of trimming the oddball talents list, and casting
the remaining talents in (reasonably) clear terms of skill or power
constructions. This has the effect of rationalizing their costs with respect
to the rest of the system. It also has the effect of removing any of their
uniqueness and charm: what's left is essentially nothing more than a recipe
list of how to build your own not-so-quirky talents.
With that in mind, what possible reason could we have for the persistence of
the silly Universal Translator talent? (Answer: because it was in H4, I
suspect.)
Now some point by point discussions.
Character Conception: Power Levels
As many players have already noted, the Standard Superhero price has now gone
up to 350 points (200 base 150 disad). Other changes in the character types
guideline chart have been made too.
There are now more Hero types for play. The Standard Hero remains unchanged
at 150 (75 75). Added, are the Powerful Hero (100 100) and Very Powerful Hero
(125 125). So what will these two new categories be spending those extra
points on? Most probably the added expense of additional gun-toting skills
(like the Autofire skills) and the added expense in the Talent and Perk
lists.
Also, examining the table a little more closely reveals a very interesting
trend. Previous editions of Hero have always constructed Supers with a
greater reliance on Disadvantage points than on Base points. In H5, the ratio
starts out at even for Hero types (as it does in H4), and then tails
downwards from there, rather than upwards.
The Low Powered Super (which was the Standard Super in H4) now gets 150 base
points (instead of the 100 in H4) and gets 100 from disads (instead of the
150 in H4).
This trend continues on up the line. To match, the category maximum values
for disadvantages have lessened as well. The old H4 High Powered Super (375
total points) could use 75 points from one disad category. No longer. In H5,
the Standard Hero (350 total points) gets 50 max per category, and the High
Powered Hero (450 total points) gets only 60 max per category (but remember,
only 150 of those 450 points come from disads, so the ratios are actually
slightly kinds with regards disad categories, not harsher, in the end).
What does all this number crunching mean?
Well, it means, bluntly, that your supers are going to be, not more
competent because the total point scale is still pretty much the
same, but that they're going to have less in the way of campaign
hooks, which is what the disads are really there for in the first
place. This is also going to happen for opponents, of course, as well.
I suspect what this means is that opponent character designs are going to get
significantly tougher, since the "achilles heel" points in villain
designs will become that much more scarce. This may or may not be a good
thing, but one has to believe that Steve and his pit of playtest-monkeys made
this change for a solid reason and not just out of whimsy. I suspect that
this kind of change is really one that will only show it's mark to
established HERO gamers after at least a few years of playtesting this new
set of rules, but it is an interesting and fundamental change in focus for
the game nonetheless.
Character Conception: Ability Guidelines
A very useful addition to the core rules sits right next to the power level
table: the ability guidelines table. You now have a general guide to
character design effectiveness right there at the front of the book: general
ranges of expected values for Characterstics, SPD, Combat Values, Damage
Classes, Active Points, Skill Points, Skill Rolls, and Defenses.
I think it's smart to move this bit of information into the core rules and
place it here, even though it will probably seem a bit confusing to new
players, it's useful information for the novice.
Character Conception: Package Deals
Package deals have moved to the front of the book. This is probably a good
thing. However, as further example of the "you don't get nuthin' fer free"
aspect of Steve's move to rationalize the HERO mechanics, Package Deals no
longer have any point cost benefit to them at all. I can see why he made this
decision, but once again, I think this is another swipe at the flavour in the
original system. Package Deals are now, ostensibly, simple templates for
bunches of skills, talents, powers, and disads, and very little more.
Characteristics
Almost nothing new. There is a very brief note about being able to apply
advantages and limitations to characteristics, and a warning that this can
have wonky effects on game play.
Skills
Here things start seeming quite different. This section includes a discussion
of the different cost structures of skills, which have been rationalised.
The "standard" 3/2 skill, attached to either INT, PRE, or DEX, is still here.
A new skill type, the "2/2 category skill" has been introduced, and, I think,
is a welcome addition. Essentially, the category skill is a bit like the old
notion of "cascade skills" found in GDW family mechanics: an example will
clarify. No longer do you buy Gambling at 3/2. Now you buy Gambling:Cards and
Gambling:Dice, separately from one another, each using the 2/2 cost
structure. This new skill type replaces (in the main) the old "General" skill
type.
There are several special, fixed cost skills, including some which aren't in
the old skill system at all (some new from whole cloth, some moved-over
Talents): Autofire Skills, Defensive Manoeuvre, Rapid Attack, Two-Weapon
Fighting.
Deserving special mention is an ingenious new type of Skill Level, which may
have very interesting implications for the game: the Penalty Skill Level
(really just a generalisation of the old Range Skill Levels). This beastie
allows the general application of levels bought to offset penalties. One of
the most common applications of these is to offset range penalties, or PER
roll penalties due to environment. This is a nifty way to suddenly create a
better way to build scopes, night finder goggles, and so forth.
The dreaded "Language Familiarity Chart" is still there, but easily ignored
if it doesn't please you.
The extended descriptions of the Martial Arts Manoeuvres have (as mentioned
above) been moved to the Combat And Adventuring chapter, including the Style
packages. I'm not at all sure this was a good idea. A sidebar still retains
the costs of the various manoeuvres, but the Style packages should at least
be repeated here, and they're not.
A Teamwork skill has been added for use with Coordinating attacks, although
why this should be based off DEX is dodgy. Professor X, for example, is a
good example of the "brainy field commander" that helped his team coordinate
their attacks to good use. Still, it's there and it's a good idea, I think.
Knowledge Skills, Professional Skills, and Science Skills, and their
distinctions are, I think, better explained in the new edition. KS are things
you know, PS are things you can earn a living at, and SS are sort of
a mixture of the two. I'm of two minds about this, since you have, for
example PS:Lawyer and KS:Law, but SS:Medicine (encompassing both medical
biology and being a doctor). Frankly, I would have preferred to
dispense with SS entirely in favour of KS and PS, a clear division of fields
of lore and fields of practical expertise. I suppose this would have led to
lots of KS:Physics, PS:Physicist characters which might be an annoyance, but
I think I'd rather have that, then the dubiously added flexibility of the
three types.
The familiar Skill Enhancers are still there.
The Transport Familiarity and Weapon Familiarity tables seem vastly
overblown, but once again we're back to Steve's attempt to expand the
coverage of the game system into more "heroic" styles of play. Could be a
good thing, but I'd be inclined to ignore all the specific parts of these
tables, and put only the general types into play in my games.
Perks
There are some new perks: Access, Anonymity, Computer Link, Deep Cover,
Reputation. In general, I think they're all good additions. However, I am a
little baffled at the distinction between Access and Computer Link
(ostensibly one gives you physical access to a location and one computer
access to a computer). Why the second couldn't simply be framed as a virtual
form of the first seems unclear. Especially since the first perk ranges from
1 to 5 points, and the second 1 to 10 points in cost?
What if your Access perk gives you physical access to a computer? Must you
then have also purchased Computer Link to take advantage of it? Seems a bit
silly to me, and I'm likely to fold the two together in my house rules;
still, perhaps the distinction is useful for you.
Anonymity, Deep Cover, and Reputation are rationalizations of social
character aspects that were never really well dealt with in previous editions
of the game, and I think they're a useful addition: Anonymity gives you a
lack of appearence in public records (the more points you spend, the more
"blank" you are); Deep Cover gives you an alternate Identity; and, Reputation
gives you a positive "rep" that you can use to positively affect your
interactions with people, sort of like turning the Reputation Disad on its
ear.
Talents
Talents have had a thorough overhaul. On the assumption that rebuilding all
of them from the skills and powers lists would be good for play balance,
that's what Steve has done. Accordingly, some are unchanged in cost (Bump of
Direction, frex), and some are much more expensive (Combat Sense, Danger
Sense), and some are much cheaper (Eidetic Memory).
An interesting side effect of rationalizing the Talents is that the mechanics
for building them are made explicit (included in the descriptions), and that
this has some clear implications for what these Talents are and how they
really work. Lightning Calculator is a wonderful example. LC is built based
on Detect -- Detect Correct Answer to Mathematical Operation. Depending on
how you think of Lightning Calculators, this is incorrect and violates one of
Steve's own "meta rules" for the HERO system (that if there's two ways of
doing something, the more expensive should be chosen).
Clearly, this will build Lightning Calculator characters who can derive the
answers to math problems without necessarily having any mathematical ability
at all. Their Detect will simply "tell them" what the right answer is. I'm
not sure I like this. I'd far prefer to tie this to a Math skill, and build
the Lightning Calculator on Postcog, so that the LC can simply pull the
answer out of his own future. If the Math skill fails, then the LC answer is
incorrect. LC as it stands seems to model the type of "Idiot Savant" who can
intuit answers to complex problems without having any real math ability; but
nowhere in genre or in reality is there an LC who can "calculate the vector
of an approach orbit with regard to relative speeds, gravities, and rotation
speeds". While you might like to have the idiot savant type of LC, one
wonders why anyone would then bother to build a character with
SS:Mathematics?
Powers
The Powers rules are the heart and soul of the HERO machine. Unfortunately, a
discussion of same is not going to be as deep here as perhaps it might: for
best understanding of how H5 treats Powers, you're going to need to have a
thorough playtest under belt, and my access to these new rules is to newly
gained for that. However, I have noticed some things that might be useful for
you to hear.
H5 introduces some discussions of Minimum Costs for powers: now, a GM can
specify some minimum costs for powers. This has a serious implication though:
if modifier powers (like Drains) drop powers below this minimum cost floor,
the power suddenly turns off. For example, if your GM tells you that any
Energy Blast must have at least 20 base points, then any Drain which drops
your EB below that 20 base points takes it away entirely. Hmmm: makes some
sense, but I can see that this will also add a fair bit of calculation to
play. It might be just as sensible to dispense with the notion of Minimum
Costs... Why is this here? Because many of the powers have had their
"barriers to entry" removed by getting rid of their minimum costs (Summon,
TK, Teleport). Expect this to produce a whole lot more character designs that
have "cantrip" level uses of these powers. That could produce interesting new
character designs, is a really good idea, in my opinion. How this will
actually work out in play, however, remains to be seen.
The general rules discussion of powers is still there (END, special effects,
the distinction between instant, constant, persistent, and inherent). A new
power state is provided: Inherent. Powers that are persistent and always on
can also be made Inherent (a Ghost's desolid is "inherent", frex). Inherent
powers cannot be drained, transferred, or "turned off", but you can
still affect them with Transforms and other powers Usable On Others.
Somewhat expanded are the descriptions of the Power Categories (Adjustment,
Mental, Movement, etc), and the general rules that govern their use during
play. The organisation and presentation of these rules has been clarified
too, so it's easier to see just what are the underlying assumptions about how
the different power categories are meant to function.
The list of powers itself is essentially the same as the H4 list, except
expanded with clarifications and examples of how the powers should work and
how you can build with them in character creation.
Find Weakness and Luck are now powers (Unluck is still a Disadvantage), and
this is in keeping with his desire to remodel all Talents in terms of built
from skills and/or powers.
Aid is now twice as expensive, and does not produce permanent effects. The
addition of a Healing power shores up that hole (which cannot raise stats
above their starting levels, but which does produce permanent effects), and
is the same cost as Aid: 10 points per die.
Duplication is now half as expensive in its base form (you pay 1 point for
every 5 in the base form).
Enhanced Senses have been gone over and rationalized. This is likely a good
thing: most of the old H4 entries haven't changed, some have become slightly
more expensive (or less) as they're rebuilding required. Provided are
additional notes on how to build new senses, categorize them, and handle them
in play. Useful, I suspect.
Flash is now half as expensive in its base form, and Flash Def is the same
cost: I suspect that this should now become a more popular power!
HTH Attacks seem to be more expensive, but they must be purchased
with a mandatory -1/2 built in limitation that prevents them from being used
other than to add to the character's damage dice from STR. It remains to be
seen what precise effect this will have on play. From a glance it looks like
the good old HA is the same cost, but it's parameters for use in play have
been more clearly defined.
Instant Change has been removed, and is now built as a cosmetic Transform.
Superleap has become Leaping, but otherwise seems the same.
Life Support's cost structure remains relatively unchanged; however, the
options and descriptions for various kinds of support have been vastly more
detailed.
Luck is now a power, but is essentially the same in cost.
The Multiform cost structure has changed: now you have to pay 1 for every 5
points in the "most expensive form" you have. You can then buy a doubling in
the number of forms you have available to you for 5 points. Characters with
lots and lots of forms will become more prevalent as a result, I suspect.
Regeneration has gone away in favour of the new, Healing power.
Shapeshift's cost structure has changed in an interesting way. Now, the cost
is based on the sense groups that perceive the changed shape: for the base
cost, you affect one targeting sense. That means, you may *look* like a
hyena, but you still *smell* like a super in tights. Oddly enough, you can
*look* like a hyena to Normal Sight, but still like a super in tights to UV
or IR, if I read the rules correctly. This is a radically different look at
the way shape-shifting works, and it will cause painful redesigns for any H4
character based on shapeshifting (like my beloved Proteus). It might be
better for some of those characters to build themselves with Transforms
instead of shapeshifting, depending on special effects; time and playtesting
will tell.
Summon's cost structure has changed; the high barrier to entry has been
removed, and Summon is treated with the same structure as the new Multiform:
1 points for every five in the summoned creature, 5 to double the number of
creatures. No more 30 point base to summon, meaning you can summon a whole
whack of "nuisance creatures" for not very many points. Expect a lot
more summoning villains to show up. Errrrgh.
TK benefits like almost no other power (except perhaps Summon and Teleport,
c.f.) with the removal of minimum expenses. Now, you get 2 points of STR for
3 points; no more 15 point minimum. Expect a lot more designs with "cantrip"
levels of TK (every hero and his cousin who can open doors from across the
room for 2 points). Fine work still costs 10 points, though.
Teleport's barrier to entry has been removed: it's now almost just another
movement power (well, twice as expensive still, but at least you can
buy an inch of teleport now!). Still no non-combat multiples on TPort,
though, and I suspect that this will be a popular house rule.
Transform's description has been expanded to clarify how to build things with
this tricky power. It's still marked with a stop-sign (no surprise), and the
costs haven't changed.
Tunneling still gets short shrift as the weeniest movement power (5 points
for 1"), and I suspect that means we'll still see lots and lots of hairy
character constructions with Life Support bought and linked with TPort. Why
Steve didn't fix Tunneling to 2 points per 1" is beyond me: maybe he just
doesn't like Mole characters...
Power Advantages and Limitations
Not too much has changed here, but there's still some interesting
differences. One of the key things to notice is that some of the ads and lims
have moved forward into the discussion of power categories: for example,
hardened, and ablative have moved into the "defensive power" category
description. In my opinion, this is not a good thing: why not have
the descriptions in both places? This is going to cause some page flipping
until the Fifth Ed Reference Sheet PDFs starting percolating out on the
web...
Autofire's barrier to entry has dropped. You can now get short burst AF
attacks for 1/4 (2 or 3 shots). The full 5 burst is still 1/2. I suspect
that this is more of Steve making the system more gun friendly.
Based on ECV has changed slightly: it's a bit cheaper now if the target can
decide whether to use their standard or mental defenses vs the attack, and
more expensive if that choice is left up to the attacker (that could
be a very deadly advantage, and is therefore more expensive than the the
reduction if the target gets to choose). Also, you can buy it cheaper if the
attack still uses normal range mods.
H5 adds the Cumulative advantage. It only costs 1/2, but it has a cap on how
much effect you can add (this cap can be enlarged with x2 costs 1/4), and
you can't apply this advantage to powers who's primary purpose is to do STUN
or BODY. This seems like a cheap way to buy Continuous.
H5 adds Does Body, for 1, to apply to powers that don't normally do BODY
(like Ego Attacks, AVLDs and NNDs).
Duration Advantages gathers a number of advantages under one category for
better explanation: Persistent, Continuous, Inherent. Inherent powers are
those, like a Ghost's desolid, that are an essential part of their nature and
can't be drained, transferred, or suppressed. A good idea, and not too
expensive.
An interesting new advantage called Megascale appears in H5: with this, you
can can "redefine" the width of a "hex" when using the power. The base ( 0)
scale for this advantage is 2m, the standard HERO hex size. The addition of
this advantage should suddenly make Darkness heroes, and Change Environment
heroes vastly more effective. Not surprisingly, this advantage has been
stop-signed.
The various range advantages have been gathered into a Range Advantages
group, as was done with duration advantages. In this category is added Line
Of Sight as a 1/2 advantage on powers that normally act at Range. Expect to
see a lot of flying blasters buying attacks with Line Of
Sight. Errrgh. Oddly enough Ranged is an advantage detailed outside the Range
Advantages group. Hurm.
You can now buy Sticky on the cheap ( 1/4) if freeing the first affected
target frees all the targets.
Uncontrolled powers must now be Constant, and can't be simply Continuous
Uncontrolled. That could have interesting implications for some baroque
designs.
Usable On Others and Usable By Others have been joined together, and the
description clarified somewhat; the advantage is still stop-signed.
Variable Advantage's cost structure has changed: it now costs double the
value of the advantages the character can apply, rather than the flat 1 more
than the total. This makes cantrip variable advantages cheaper (i.e. a
floating 1/2 advantage costs only 1 rather than the 1 1/2 it demanded in
H4). Additionally, there's a -1/4 cost break if the Advantages are
constrained with a limited group (like Area effects, frex). Expect this to
radically improve the efficiency of guru designs...
On the Limitations side:
Ablative (under the Defense powers category) now comes in a -1/2 version as
well as the standard -1 version: the -1/2 version is used for powers that
erode only from excessive BODY taken, not STUN.
Charges have been expanded: now you can buy charges that are "boostable"
(that is, expending more than one charge gets you a bigger effect), and you
can buy "fuel charges" that represent a quantity of fuel to power a device
(like a vehicle). In short, they're more flexible, and GMs will have to be
even more wary of abusive designs.
Duration Limitations mirror Duration Advantages: covered are an Instant
limitation you can apply to a Constant power, and a Nonpersistent limit on
Persistent powers. Interesting idea, and really a codification of what would
previously have been handled with a miscellaneous limitation.
Endurance Limiations handle Cost END, and Increased END.
The Extra Time and Focus limitation descriptions have been expanded and
clarified, but the cost structures look to be essentially the same at a
glance.
H5 adds the Gradual Effect limitation, which was used in various H4
supplements to build poisons and the like; now it's part of the core rules,
and probably a useful addition there.
Generic guidelines for Limiting powers and making them Conditional have been
added, and that's a useful addition.
No Conscious Control can now be gotten on the cheap: for -1, you can have a
power you can turn on, but you can't control the effects. Interesting.
All the range limitations have been gathered into the Range Limitations
group.
Requires A Skill Roll has been altered to accomodate tieing powers to
Luck. You can either tie a power to a skill (as with H4) or to the levels of
luck that have to be generated in order to use the power.
Restrainable is a new limitation you can apply to powers to make them
restrainable by a Grab or an Entangle. This is worth -1/2. A cheapy version
at -1/4 is given to powers that can be restrained by other means.
A cheapy version of Side Effects is now available: for -1/4 you can buy 15
active points of side effect.
Variable Limitations works to the converse of Variable Advantage. You must
find twice the value in limitations to cover the cost of a Variable
Limitation (thus to soak up a -1/2 Variable Limimtation, you must find -1
worth of Limiations when you use the power. There is no cost break for
limiting these Limitations to a specific group (like Range limits, duration
limits, etc). I wonder why?
Power Frameworks
Power frameworks are where the experienced HERO player leverages their design
skills to create truly baroque and efficient characters.
Elemental Controls give a cost break to players for "thematically unified
design". For example, if you design "Iceman" and give him an "Ice Blast" with
an Energy Blast power, and fast running with an "Ice Slide", and an "Ice
Shield" that's a force wall, and a "Chilling Aura" with Change Environment,
then an Elemental Control will give you a cost break for doing so.
The descriptions about how ECs work have finally been clarified, and a lot of
HERO players are going to be horrified to discover what adjustment powers do
to ECs. In previous versions of the rules, there was no specific statement,
so many people assumed that a Drain that worked on one slot in an EC left the
others unaffected. No longer. Now, an adjustment power attacking an EC
affects all the slots at once.
Additionally, Aids to EC slots are going to be much less effective, since
they have to apply to the "base power" as well as the individual slot. This
is tricky to explain, but in most cases, it's going to mean that your Aid to
your EC slot is going to be half as effective, or slightly better.
Multipowers have been similarly "clarified". Previously, many HERO gamers
have assumed that Multiplower slot costs applied to the total character
points for the slot (after limitations). No longer. MP slots now give you a
pool of active points to work with, specifically. This may make some
multipower-based characters significantly less effective.
Variable Power Pools don't seem to have changed based on my cursory reading,
but perhaps there's something there I hadn't noticed.
Character Disadvantages
Social Limitations have been added; a very useful addition. Implementing
these with previous rules sets was rather cumbersome and had to be hacked
together with "distinctive features" disadvantages. With this new
disadvantage, both Secret ID and Public ID have been redefined in terms of
the Social Limitation.
Enraged is now the base disadvantage, with Berserk being worth more. Expect
more characters to use Enrage, and even less use of Berserk (which is likely
a good thing).
Hunted(Watched) is now worth a flat -10, instead of the x1/2 it was before. A
sensible change.
The Inevitable Gremlins
HERO 5th Edition is remarkably free of gremlins. I detected a few rare typos
in my quick read through, and the occasional glitch (the fact that the
substantial change made to the way a Haymaker works in the rules is not
reflected in the photocopyable character sheet). However, in the main, H5
is, I think, a firm exemplar of editorial quality. It's well organised,
well-written, well-edited, and well-designed as a reference work.
My Aestheic Bone to Pick
I leave this comment to the last, and as an aside. I have a nagging feeling
that this comment is perhaps more to do with my personal tastes and
sensibilities having changed in the ten years since H4 was produced.
I could not help but notice that this new edition of HERO is remarkably full
of art which I consider to be in dubious or bad taste. Lots of senslessly
busty women. And lots of guns. Lots and lots and lots of guns. I'm not
entirely sure that the artistic content has changed all that much in H5 from
H4 and its contemporary important sourcebooks (like Dark Champions). But I do
know that H5's art makes me rather uncomfortable.
HERO is, to me, a wonderful, generic rolegaming system suitable for
heroic-style adventuring of all sorts. At my age (mid thirties) and
experience with the hobby (twenty years give or take), I had hoped that at
this point the people behind HERO would have matured along with me and the
other gamers in my group. I would have liked art to inspire me in creating
characters, backgrounds, and worlds within which to adventure. I'm not
slagging comic art: frankly, H5 could have borrowed from lots of comic
sources where "mature" is not a synonym for "young, adolescent-male
power fantasy".
And yet, that's what we have. Lots of guns, lots of muscly, violent "heroes",
lots of busty S&M inspired "heroines". I'm disappointed. The art in the
book leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Combine this with a plainly noticed bias in the rules towards expansion
towards handling guns and gunfire of all sorts (the expanded autofire rules,
the new combat maneouvres clearly designed for gun combat), and I feel a
rather nervous trend here. The cynic in me says that what we have here is
Steve "Dark Champions" Long producing the game that he's wanted to
suit his personal predilections.
However, if that's the price we must pay in order to get the benefits of this
generally improved (and in print) set of rules, then I suppose that's the
price we must pay.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)