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I have owned and played every edition of Heroes Unlimited, from the first edition in 1984 (In which PC’s only received one power and there were no magic characters), through the much improved, but still quirky HU Revised, and the current Heroes Unlimited 2nd Edition, released in 2000. Although I am completely familiar with the system, I am certainly not blind to its flaws, and I never really considered it my “go to” game for supers. However, in retrospect, there are clearly some things I like about this quirky, old school supers game for me to have stuck with it for so long.
My interest newly awakened, I went home, read through the main HU2 rulebook again, and sat down to write this review. I’ve noticed people seem to have very strong feelings, positive and negative, regarding Palladium Books. I want to be clear that this is simply a review of one game, and is not meant as either an attack on, or a defense of, Palladium Books as a business, its staff, or any of its other products.
Lest anyone think I’m blinded by nostalgia, I’m going to begin this review with what I feel are the negatives of this game. Heroes Unlimited, like all Palladium games to my knowledge, uses a version of Palladium’s “Megaversal” rules system, which was derived from their Palladium Fantasy Role Playing Game (the system may have been in place earlier in the “Mechanoid” games, I’m really not sure on this point.) It very distinctly feels like something that was developed as a reaction to the AD&D rules in place at the time. Attributes are rolled using 3D6 but have been renamed. Skills have been added. Characters are given a second layer of hit points called SDC to toughen them up, etc. It’s a class and level based system, which is sort of a rarity for a supers game.
Compared to more modern games, the system feels cobbled together. Combat works off a “roll high D20” roll, skills work on a “roll under percentage” system, psionics and magic both use different “spell point” style systems whereas the super powers operate on a set fiat. Tech based characters like robots and cyborgs operate completely differently, and have their own lists of weapons and equipment to purchase with a set budget (making HU one of the few games I can think of that still uses starting fund to balance character abilities.) In short, there is no unified mechanic to be found here… everything works differently from everything else, and many powers and skills have their own little sub-systems for doing things that are completely different from each other.
One of the most annoying aspects of all this is the skills system. For some reason, rather than set a standard progression rate, each skill in the game begins at its own percentage, and progresses at its own little bizarre percentage rate per level. For instance, you might have Computer Operation, which starts at 50% and increases 5% per level, and then Prowl which starts at 40% and increases 3% per level. Although I really question the need to differentiate skill improvement by 1-2% increments, this situation is made even more maddening by the fact that there is no table/list of each skill with its percentage…. You have to look up each one individually in the book to find this info! Flipping back and forth trying to find all these skills and percentages is responsible for at least half the time needed for chargen. (Although I will note that the later released GM’s Guide does contain a list, that speeds things up greatly.)
There are also some design choices that are just pain odd… for instance, attributes are more or less scaled similar to D20, 3-18. However, if you roll a 16 or higher, you then get to roll a bonus die, and add it to your total. Since attribute bonuses begin at 16, this kind of insures that only really lucky rollers will ever get them out the gate. Also, it makes normal attributes even more useless than D20. There is absolutely no difference, game-wise, between a character with Strength of 8 and one with a Strength of 15. This isn’t as big a deal as you might think, though, because there is also no real attribute check system… if something isn’t handled by a skill, it’s basically left up to the Gm to determine how to handle it.
As I mentioned earlier, the gamer is class and level based. The classes are organized as “Power Categories” and, logically enough, determine where the character gets their extraordinary powers or abilities from. The Power Categories are Alien, Bionics, Experiment, Hardware, Magic, Mutants, Physical Training, Psionics, Robotics, and Special Training. Some classes, such as Special Training, have more specific sub-classes, like Secret Operative, or Stage Magician.
While I actually think this works rather well (more on that later) it cannot be denied that little or no effort is made to balance the abilities of these classes with each other. As a mutant, you could easily create a character who can turn to metal, fly, and shoot laser beams from his eyes. As a Special Training: Stage Magician, you can juggle, and throw smoke bombs. I would argue a lot of this balance would simply fall on the shoulders of the GM, but I know this really bothers some players.
Now, in spite of all that, I do think there are some positive aspects about this game. As I previously mentioned, the game uses both classes and levels, and in my opinion, if you’re not opposed to the idea of class and level based supers, this game does it right (mostly.) I think the power categories this game uses are the best “classes” I have ever seen for a supers game. They follow a distinct logic, and you instantly can get a handle on how your character works when you pick one. And although they can be limiting (there are no rules for mixing and matching power classes… you are a mutant or an alien or a robot etc) I do feel they cover a very large chunk of the most common types of characters found in the comics.
Although I’m not crazy about the rules for tech based characters, actual super powered beings are very fun to create. This is not an effects based system… you roll your attributes, you pick your skills, and then you roll or pick your powers. Although there are no rules for altering of modifying powers, I have to say the powers feel pretty complete and fun as presented. They are divided into minor and major abilities. Major abilities tend to have numerous, well defined uses and effects, with lots of little sub powers. Minor abilities usually do just one or two things, like super strength or energy blast. You can randomly roll to determine your powers, or just pick them, and an average character might have something like (1) Major and (2) Minor abilities. If it wasn’t for the somewhat involved process of adding up skill percentages and combat bonuses, you could generate a basic character in 10 minutes.
Another plus is the Palladium combat system. Rather than abstract the striking and dodging of combat into a single die roll, Palladium combat involves the defender rolling to strike, and the defender rolling to parry. Dodging ranged attacks is also an option, but usually costs the defender an attack or action from their next turn. Although slightly more complicated, this back and forth, combat feels more exciting to me, and really lets martial arts based characters shine, since they will typically have high defensive bonuses. Most attacks will technically “hit” but many will be parried or dodged by the defender. It’s a psychological thing, but busting out a great parry roll somehow conveys more excitement than just having a high AC or static to hit number, and reminds my more of great comic book battles.
Overall, the game just has its own feel… more than any other game I have ever seen, it really is old school AD&D meets superheroes. Not literally, as many rules and terms are different, but that’s what it feels like. In the same way that AD&D is not truly a generic system, Heroes Unlimited represents the author’s attempt to distill his favorite conventions from numerous comics books into a quantified game system. As such, it makes many assumptions about how certain types of super heroes, powers, and abilities should work that some players will like, and some won’t. I always tell people, if you just want to have fun playing a super hero, Heroes Unlimited is great game. If you want to model a specific character from a specific comic book… it’s really not the best choice for that. D&D has a hard time modeling Conan, but you can sure have fun playing a barbarian warrior. Heroes Unlimited can’t really put together Spider-man, but if you want to play a street level insect powered vigilante… no problem!
The book itself is pretty hefty, and a great value at $27 for 352 pages. The cover features art by one of my favorite comic artists of all time, Jim Steranko. I must admit, this is a huge selling point for me, as Steranko’s run on Nick Fury is legendary, in my opinion. Interior art is black and white, and is really a mixed affair. I love some of it, hate a few pieces, and wish they recycled less art from Rifts.
The second edition of the game also came with pretty good line support… with a few exceptions, I think it’s safe to say if you like the main book, you will like most of the supplements. The Powers Unlimited series, in particular, is very useful, as those books add hundreds of new powers to the game.
Overall, for me the positives of the game outweigh the negatives… I have long since house ruled away most of the things that bother me. I can’t say Heroes Unlimited is the only supers game I would play, because it can’t do everything. But on the flip side, I’ve never played another supers game that gives me quite the same feel either. And I guess that’s been enough to keep me coming back for all these years!
