Hero System 5th Edition
When I got this book in the mail, I was convinced that someone had sent me a brick via UPS. It was huge beyond all reason, and the package was quite bulky. Oh, it was heavy too. When I opened up the package there was a shiny black book, thick and heavy, well put together and solid, with a functional look that lacked the flash and exciting design of most modern RPGs. That first look gave me my impression of Hero 5, and after 2 playtest campaigns, it’s still the impression that I have. This game is thick, crunchy, and solid as a brick; but lacks the spark and sexy design that so many games offer. Whether this is good or bad will depend completely on your approach to gaming.
The Game
Hero System Fifth Edition is the fifth (obviously) incarnation of the rules set that was first published in Champions in 1981. Over the last 20 years it has been added to, streamlined, added to, tested, added to, smoothed out, made generic, and tested again. What started out as a superhero game has become a generic hero game, suitable for playing anything from fantasy to sci-fi to superheroes to spies. Massive and complex, yet coherent, integrated, and based on a couple of simple task-resolution methods, the game is a heavy, solid, and dependable workhorse of a system.
Task resolution is based around two general kinds of dice-rolls. The first is a roll under stat, where 3d6 are rolled, totaled, and compared to a number. If the dice are equal to or less than the number then the task succeeds, if they are over the task fails. The second, usually used for effectiveness of powers or attacks, involves rolling and totaling a variable number of d6. The number rolled depends on the power of the attack, so that weak attacks produce small numbers while really powerful attacks can results in rolling handfuls of dice and getting numbers into the low hundreds.
Onto those basics are added hundreds (possibly thousands if you have genre books or setting books that extend the system) of permutations, situational modifiers, optional rules, and so on. Generally, however, the system stays constant to its basic rolls. You’ll either roll an action of 3d6 and hope for low, or roll an effect of Xd6 and hope for big numbers. The additions to that basic rule simply show how to use it in any number of situations. I do mean any number. There are whole chapters of the book based around not just combat variables, but rules for falling, breaking things, driving and constructing vehicles, using Presence (social) attacks, pushing abilities, endurance and encumbrance, environmental effects, sensing things, and concealment. Each of these chapters has rules from basic to advanced, and several of them (such as damage and endurance) have optional settings that can be mixed and match to make the game specifics work the way the GM wants. If you want realistic wounds, no problem, or if you want comic book slugfests that everyone bounces up from ten minutes later, it has that too.
The real bulk of the Hero system, however, is based around its detailed, complex, and flexible character generation system. 220 of the books 370 pages are dedicated to character gen. In this massive section are rules for determining the power level of the campaign, and thus the point value of characters. From there character generation goes through determining attributes, skills, perks, talents, powers, and disadvantages. While all of these sections are hefty, and provide many options for multiple types of characters in just about any setting, the largest is the power section. Powers, in Hero, don’t just represent superheroic powers. They form the basis for creating any ability, gadget, or special that a character might have. High tech guns, cars, lasers from the eyes, magic spells, unusual luck, nearly inhuman accuracy with a six gun – all of these are powers. Powers are constructed by choosing the base power from a list, then adding any number of advantages or limitations to the power. The number of powers, combined with the vast number of advantages and flaws, makes it possible to create just about any power or item you can imagine. Sometimes it requires a great deal of creativity and system knowledge to get the desired effect, but something quite close to the intended effect (if not exact to it) is almost always possible.
All of these options and abilities are designed to allow players to make the characters and gear they want, while keeping everything more or less balanced in terms of power and utility. While this doesn’t always work (it is possible to make a useless but expensive power, or loop hole the system to make insane powers for fairly few points), it does form a solid and reliable basis of rules and guidelines that is second to none in terms of heavy, solid rules-based flexibility.
The Good
Possible the neatest thing about Hero 5 is the vast number of examples it gives. For nearly every rule set, every power, every benefit and limitation, and every type of item there will be an example of the power, a demonstration of the rule, and advice about how to use the rule as a tool (or not use the rule in some rare occasions) to make the game/character that you want. When you look up the power “Hand to Hand Attack” you’ll see a sidebar with Fighting Clubs, mystical Fists of Steel, and Energy Gauntlets already statted up. This makes a deep and sometimes difficult system much easier to understand, and also gives a wide number of preconstructed powers that can be used right out of the box. The sidebars through the combat chapters are full of advice to players on how to make their characters effective in a fight, as well as tips for GMs about how to make the mythically long Hero combats shorter and faster. These kind of sidebars are the bells and whistles that a modular/tool kit style game needs to make it accessible to non-initiates, and Hero uses them well, often, and to good effect.
Another thing along the same lines was the Character Abilities Guideline table. This table does what every point-based and/or superhero game should do – it gives recommendations for fitting levels of attributes, defenses, attack levels, and combat capability for various power levels. Note that it does not impose these as hard limits (though it gives the GM the option of doing so), but simply shows the range of effect that a character should have in various fields if they want to be competent and capable in their field at the game level they are playing. One of my biggest problems with games like Aberrant and SAS is that players often unwittingly make characters that are grossly incompetent in one field or another. I’ve had characters who were supposed to be good in combat who ended up getting leveled in the first round of every fight, characters that were supposed to be the master of a skill that couldn’t quite tie their shoes or blow their nose, and so on. Of course, I’ve had the opposite happen as well – when a character is able to stomp all over everything with an over-powerful ability. This little table helps to correct that. It doesn’t replace GM and player cooperation, or monitoring various powers, or the potential for abuse. What it does do is let everyone be on the same page when it comes to the expected power levels of characters, and lets players know where their characters should be in order to be the character they want. I honestly wish that more games, even those not so system heavy, would give guidelines like these.
Finally, the best thing about Hero is its modularity of system. If you want rules for how difficult it is for a character with poor vision to see a moving tennis ball at 200 yards in a sandstorm, you will be able to turn to the book and get an exact ruling. If, on the other hand, you don’t really care for that level of detail, you don’t have to use the detailed and specific Senses rules – the game will work well enough with just a simple PER roll. The book even has a decent chapter all about adding in and taking out rules you don’t like in order to play the kind of game you want. You can strip the game down (though it will still be a system based game, it will not be as horridly heavy as most accuse it of being) or use every single rule, you can add stunts and mook rules or play it straight, and the game will work either way. That level of modularity is a wonderful thing, and does a very good job of living up the slogan of “the Ultimate Gamers' Toolkit.”
Also, this ultimate toolkit has what might be the ultimate game index. 12 pages of small fonts with thousands of listings, and optional power and example indexes are available on the net. This is the kind of index that I dream about all games having, and I will rejoice in the streets and flash all who pass by the day every game matches this beauty.
The Bad
The “bad” of the Hero system is going to be subjective and dependent upon gaming style. Really, the game is the ultimate “gamers” toolkit, and not the ultimate narrativist toolkit. The Hero system focuses on a solid, generic, core system with lots of rules and specific definitions. While that is exactly the setup that makes it so good at what it does, it is also the reason that people that like genre-emulating, narrative and story based rules will not like the Hero system. When the game tells you things like you shouldn’t allow players to get away with “power stunts” too often, because every power and usage of power should be bought with points, you know that some people are going to not like the cut of the game's jib. This, however, is not really a bad thing – as the game knows it does that, and does it on purpose. I am simply noting it in the bad section, because it could be an aspect of the game that will turn many players off.
In a similar complaint, one that is not necessarily bad, but that is problematic to my personal play style, Hero’s system is quite generic hero. In establishing such a solid, central rule set the game puts its focus on the game and rules aspects of playing, rather than on genre emulation aspects that other games (most notably Feng Shui) are so good at using. This is not an insurmountable problem (nor will it be a problem at all for many), as there are ways to introduce new rules that help the emulation, but doing so requires some work and tinkering, and may not be as satisfactory as a game that is built around a genre. However, in return for this price, Hero will work acceptably, lacking spark or pizzazz, but with solid, plodding power for just about any genre you can think of. Hero places generic functionality over genre or gimmicks, and that is something potential buyers should be aware of.
Finally, the Hero system can be a very heavy system, and can be intimidation to a newbie. There are so many options, so many rules, so many ways to build so many things, that those new to gaming or without good “system heads” can get turned off, confused, or just plain lost. Anyone running the Hero system should be damn sure and damn certain that they have at least a moderate mastery of the game and the rules, because you will have to help players and you will have to clear up sticky issues where one niggling little rule gets forgotten, misremembered, or mangled by player interpretation. GMs will have to be prepared, be on their toes, and know the book back to front and front to back. It’s simply the price of having such a detailed, strong system.
The Ugly
Not much in the Hero system is ugly. There is a lot that is plain Jane, bland, and/or simply functional, but nothing that stuck out at me as being really ugly. While there isn’t a lot of beauty besides the very solid functionality of the system, which is pretty in the way that an assembly line is aesthetically pleasing, there aren’t any major eye-gouging or vomit inducing bits either. Even most of the art is decent, though in all honesty the computer generated pics did not fit with the line art. Though they were good, they stood out in a rather painful way.
Creating a complex character with an annoying player could be ugly, as it would take a vast amount of time and patience, but that is an issue of combining a heavy system with an annoying player, and so can’t fully be held against the game. Similarly, if you insist on running a game using every rule (rather than just the core ones that fit the game you want) combat can be an endless chore that will suck out hours of your life. However, if you’re playing with every rule you must be doing so because you want that level of detail. You can cut down the number of rules you use and speed combat a great deal. It will, however, still be slower than many other games as Hero emphasizes system and accuracy over speed or flexibility. Character creation and combat will be slow – but that doesn’t mean they can’t still be fun. Just bring aspirin, Mountain Dew, and a stick to beat anyone who can’t count by 10 and you’ll be all set to go.
The Playtest
For my playtest I used two different groups. Group one was the “good” group; we will call them Team XP. Group two was the “test” group; we will call them Team Newbie. Team XP was made up of 4 old Hero players, who I used to play Champions with way back in the way back. They all had their own copies of Hero 5, knew the rules, and had played with me long enough to know my GMing style. Team Newbie was a group of 4 players who had never played Hero before, including 2 who had never heard of it at all, and one who was playing for the first time ever. I’m sure you can all guess most of what is to follow, so I’ll try not to belabor the points and stick mostly to the funny stuff.
Team Newbie started first. I had initially decided to let them all make their own characters, but that idea went down the tubes fast. You see, the first member of Team Newbie came over hours before anyone else, and we sat down to make his character. 2 hours later we were still working on his character, and I was trying very, very hard to resist the urge to shove a banana up his nose while jumping up and down on him and screaming in Sanskrit. Unfortunately I failed. After he got back up and I apologized, I decided that for this test run I was going to make all the characters. I spent maybe an hour and managed to work up a good set of stats for the Ultimate X-Men, and let the players choose from among them. The group, all of whom love Ultimate Marvel, was happy with that and so we got started on a good note (well, except for #1 crying every time I picked up a banana).
For our first game I decided to try using every single rule in the whole book. It wasn’t really possible, as many of the modular systems are either/or, but I did my best to use every system plug possible. The results were… well… not good. They weren’t disastrous or anything, but the game proceeded at a crawl and our first combat, between the X-Men and five sheriff’s deputies, took something around four hours. More than one of the players took cat naps during other player’s turns. The next game I changed the game a little, using the advice from the book to make a more super heroic and cinematic game. We used a streamlined rules set, rolling only when it was important, and used nice little tools like average damage against mooks, letting players roll in advance, not giving mooks recoveries, and so on (all of which are in the book). The improvement was noted and instant. Our next combat, against five Sentinels, took just over two hours – despite being more complex and run at a higher and more dangerous level. It also felt more like a super heroic combat, including super heroic screw ups. We were all especially amused when Beast tried to redirect a laser blast and ended up redirecting it into Cyclops. It was especially funny because Cyclops’s player threatened Beast’s player with a banana afterwards, only to be “lasered” with Code Red Mountain Dew shot from a Supersoaker by Storm’s player.
As the campaign (which basically replicated the first story arc of Ultimate X-Men) went on the players all got more familiar with the rules and combats got quicker. I also added a handful of house rules – all based off advice in the book, if not specifically in the book. Even with the smaller rule set and the increased familiarity, however, combat still took longer than it did in most of the other games I’d played. Most fights took over an hour, and big fights could go to three hours. It was not, however, a nightmare and the group generally had fun playing. Though none of them actually said they loved the system, after the first couple nights there wasn’t a single complaint about it either. There were plenty of complaints about the other players being “poops” and several pizza fights, but it was all in good fun. Everyone left the campaign happy, and our first timer has said she wants to keep playing in other games.
I followed a similar protocol with Team XP – save that I expected them to come to game with characters pre-generated. We also played in a heroic Western setting, rather than playing Supers. I can say, with all honesty, that it was the only time that this group ever pre-genned characters and had every single one of them be a workable, well-rounded character. I give credit to the character abilities guidelines in Hero, because the group of questionable sentients I play with certainly can’t take the credit. Once again I started out using every rule, and rounded down as the game went along. Even with experienced players and heroic characters (who roll less dice, as a rule, than super heroic characters) using every rule made combat slow and burdensome. With fewer rules combat went at an acceptable pace, and my players were able to get a medium level where they got the detail they wanted while still keeping combat moving fast enough that no one got bored.
The only real problem in Team XP’s game was when I had to make up rules to help genre emulation – such as coming up with a way to use the initiative system to properly simulate a High Noon showdown. In the end, however, it wasn’t too hard as the existing rule set was more than robust enough to abide by some simple tinkering while giving me a solid basis for my tweaks. It worked well enough that at the end of the game, when the Singing Cowboy faced off with his Arch-nemesis in the central street of town, the scene played out almost well enough to feel like a story and not a game. The Singing Cowboy took a bullet in the shoulder, but still put a bullet in MacLoud’s heart, ending his reign of evil. He than sang a ballad over the dead body, while the other players swarmed over the table to try and stop the horrid noise coming out of the player’s mouth.
In the end we simply had him roll his skill, and his character sang beautifully while the player sang not at all. Thus did Hero save us from torture and deafness.
Conclusions (or Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid)
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Hero is heavy, solid, slow, as well as completely reliable, powerful, and usable. In a world of speedsters and flashy luxury cars, Hero is the workhorse pickup of RPGs. If you want pretty, if you want quick, if you want easy to learn and good for one-shots, you’ll be better off elsewhere. If, on the other hand, you want a system that will give you hundreds of hours of play in dozens of different games, that has rules for nearly every situation you can think of, that will let you make any character you want, and you don’t mind spending hours making it, or mind spending time in a good old slobber knocking fight that takes some time to play out, the Hero will be the pinnacle of RPG design. It is not only the definition of system heavy; it is the paragon of quality in system heavy. If you want pretty or simple you may want to pass. If you want a heavy, useful, detailed system pick it up.
The End
For being the definition of system heavy, coherent, powerful toolkit systems, Hero gets a 5 for substance. For being a plain faced Brainy Janie with some 80’s art and merely functional design values it gets a 3 for Style.
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