Playgrounds are very interesting places. They offer swings and slides and merry go rounds and see saws and all the like. When I was young, I loved the sand box. It had four walls keeping the sand inside it, but inside the confines you could make anything you could imagine.
And so it is with Hero.
In many ways, Hero is the ultimate sandbox system. While it started as a superhero game known as Champions, it quickly evolved into a flexible system that could be used for any setting. The system was easily and naturally adapted to make just about any universe possible, all with minimal changes to the rules.
The character generation system was so completely different from anything else out there that it spawned other games emulating the concept. Using a pool of points to create a character rather than leaving things to random chance was absolutely brand new. So were other aspects of the game. Champions/Hero didn't have classes, or races, or alignment or anything that even remotely resembled them.
The general premise of the game is that you have certain points in each stat, skill, talent, power, or whatever. Your points in these things determined your aptitude in them, and the higher your point level, the higher your ability.
HERO uses a strange formula for figuring target numbers. The old way was :
9+(Stat/5). An example of this was: ToughGuy has 30STR. His roll to determine if he passed a STR check was 9+(30/5)= 15.
The HERO system uses 3D6 to do ability checks, where you want to roll lower than your ability level number. An 18 was an autofail. So for ToughGuy, a 15 or less on 3D6 meant he had a good chance of being able to be tough!
There are basic building blocks with HERO. There are STATS- Strength, Dexterity, and so on; and FIGURED Stats (such as speed, recovery and endurance). Stats were weighted according to their impact and relevance to the game. Stats that impacted figured stats and/or skills highly cost a LOT more than basic stats.
The way the two worked together was brilliance in action. By mixing and matching along with wise points expenditures, you could create any build or concept you had in mind.
The point pool was really the only limit to what you could do in HERO. According to amount of points, the scale of the game was either limited or expanded and the freedom to design within those point confines was pretty intense.
While there are very few limits, the building process had quite a lot of depth to it. Most other systems simply said "roll 'em", HERO forced a disciplined approach. Buying stats was a calculator inducing affair. While the base stats were pretty straight forward, the figured stats were something else entirely. Learning the "break points" of buying stats became a vaunted achievement regardless of setting.
The skills, talents, abilities and powers were all bought out of the common pool as well. There were no rules or restrictions except those provided by your GM. It was just as possible to have a linguist domino player as it was to have a strong and smart fighter.
Every ability or game mechanic was defined by effect. Defensive things like walls had to be defined just as much as force fields, and to do so, special effects were involved- mostly imaginations. Sometimes special effects meant more than just descriptive stuff and worked its way into how the game played. Those instances were dealt with through modifiers.
Modifiers - as the moniker implies- modify the game. There are advantages; where an ability is BETTER than the average ability in some way. These advantages increase the cost of the ability; which means some points juggling.
Then there are Limitations; where an ability is hampered in some way. The limitations on abilities decreases their cost, and that also means more point juggling.
Then there are frameworks, where things that are similar are grouped together to help give you a bulk discount. Frameworks can be given modifiers as well, making the bulk discount an even more numbers heavy affair.
Because of how few restrictions there were on building them, frameworks in the "old days" begged for some serious mathematics shenanigans, and many a character spent 11 points on 21 powers/skills/talents whatever. That has since been changed, but frameworks still have an impact on the game.
While the ability to build any character concept ever was fabulous and incredible, the system behind the idea is intimidating. Even at the early stages, the need for a calculator and a keen understanding of why you're buying something at a certain point level was essential. There were certain Stats that impacted the game heavily (DEX was the "God Stat") and others that had no relevance (COM). There were also "break points" where the division of how you were spending points became critical. Great examples included STR, where a 23 was just as good as a 25 in terms of skill checks and so on. It took work to like and understand the game.
This has changed to some extent in the new edition, where figured stats don't exist anymore, and you spend points on everything (instead of getting baseline amounts of figured stats just due to their primary stat). For older players, this takes getting used to and newer players do sort of groan at all the math.
The newest edition did not help make the game less intimidating. Written by a lawyer with a passion for numbers, it read more like a complicated manual than a game. The sheer amount of numbers needed to make the game GO are very daunting.
For anyone that hadn't been into HERO for a while, it took a concentrated effort to get into the game. However, once those people understood the power of the sandbox, the game became incredibly interesting and addictive.
I know I haven't really talked at all about the mechanics or the "hook". For me, the main selling point of HERO is the character generation, where you do everything from decide if your dude is a scrawny runt to make him a James Bond espionage agent extraordinaire all while pulling numbers and calculations out of your butt.
The mechanics are simple- use 3D6 and roll low, in almost every case. The exception is damage, where the more dice you use the better, and the higher the result on the dice, the better your result.
The damage dice business has turned regular friends into Dice wielding maniacs, shooka-shooka-shooka and clatter-clatter-clatter of 20D6 flying across the table, with looks of maniacal glee on their faces as they count the sixes (which essentially count for two dice).
Maybe it's the dice that makes this game my favorite....
Enjoy, ask questions, and talk to you soon!
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