The HERO SYSTEM 5TH EDITION

Overall score:

When I hear that there is an nth edition of any game, my mind wanders back to the heady shows of the 70s and 80s: shows like The Incredible Hulk and 6 Million-Dollar Man. When I think HERO 5th Edition I see Stephen Long standing over an operating table telling other writers “We can rebuild it—we can make it better, stronger, faster; we have the technology." They were right, but let me start my story another way.

I bought this game at my unfriendly weird "Pete’s Eagle and Empire" on Route 1 in Alexandria, VA. It’s the kind of store I go to when I know absolutely no one else has the game I’m looking for. I don’t like their choice in radio programming (Conservative AM programming), and I don’t like their emphasis on Warhammer (after all, we have five Games Workshop stores in Northern Virginia). I do like that they have a tendency to carry the game you want whenever you want it, even though they only have one bookshelf devoted to RPGs. How they do it I don’t know, but I think it has something to do with telepathy. So anyway, I took a trip after work yesterday to E&E with the express purpose of buying HERO. I had 41 dollars in my pocket and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me. I had passed up chances to get it before: at 373 pages the glossy black Hero System 5th edition is a monster, and its 39.95 price tag was enough to scare me away on more than one occasion. But despite my trepidation, I now hold it in my grubby little hands and it radiates power. In terms of settingless RPGs, the HERO system is the Yin to GURPS’s Wang—I say Wang because I have always suspected that the folks at SJG could have tried a lot harder with GURPS. Due to blatant theft on SJG's part, though, GURPS is a lot like HERO, so GURPS fans won’t find it hard to transition over.

HERO is a point-based character game that uses 6-sided dice (usually three) to roll against a target number. Characters buy powers, talents, skills, perks, and flaws. The basics are laid out on page 2, after the comprehensive table of contents and before the giant glossary. The book also has a twelve page index at the back, making HERO one of the best-organized RPG books ever. Like GURPS, the first 2/3 of the book is devoted to character creation.

Officially the book has seven chapters and an introduction, but since the first chapter is 214 pages and the rest of them are way small let me explain the format first. Chapters set apart specific rule areas or focuses of HERO. Other books would have called them sections or books or whatever, so the use of the word chapter doesn’t matter much. Each chapter is subdivided into sections bearing a two or three inch title explaining the topic. Chapter One is not surprisingly called Character Creation and is split into twelve sections detailing creation of a character from start to finish. Chapter Two is Combat and Adventuring, and is split into six sections (for 62 pages) and so on.

Characters start at a heroic base of 10 and can be adjusted up or down with character points. Each Stat costs a different amount (physical stats usually cost about 2 cp’s for a point and mental stats cost 1 cp for a point.) Any fraction or decimal is rounded up except for speed, which is rounded down. A value of 20 is generally the limit for normal humans, but any stat can go over twenty at double the cost per point.

Next a character selects skills, talents, and perks: skills are learned, talents are natural, and perks come with the job. After perks a player can select powers (if they are in a fantasy or super heroic campaign) and finally disadvantages. Disadvantages are placed last because HERO wants you to be creative with your character—they want you to build the one you want and then balance them out logically. All the talents, powers, perks, and disadvantages are very vague, representing trends or generalizations. For instance, the Hunted disadvnatage can represent everything from having a super villain after you to having OSHA watching your character on the job. You actually construct your disadvantages and powers instead of just jotting down a pre-made trait. This makes character creation more personal and fun. At the end of the book they include a section explaining how to make your own custom skills and powers and such. It's clear, short, and easy to read.

The problem with a point-based system is that character creation takes forever and a day to do. To get around this I have to recommend that you buy a couple of copies of the book or photocopy the various tables found in the book. Fortunately all the tables are where you expect to find them and the index is very, very good.

Compared to GURPS, the art in HERO is great. Now don’t get me wrong: GURPS art is generally good, but I find it to be inconsistent. All of the art in HERO seems to fit and it is all well executed. Often I got the impression that HERO is better suited to other Genre gaming because several different people from different times were in the same picture. You also don’t have any repeats (a problem in many core books) and the lines are clean and nice. Overall I get the impression someone understood book editing and design. [editor's note: that alone makes this book worth buying, if only as a curiousity.] Any erratum that I have found has so far been minor. For a complete list check the HERO games website.

Mechanics-wise all the hard stuff has been figured out. Combat is a fairly fast affair: the target number for the 3d6 roll is located in a short table on page 244. Speed determines when you attack, defend, or whatnot. Damage is applied. Much rejoicing is heard. Like many games combat can get slow, but HERO has a few suggestions for GM’s that help keep things moving.

My verdict is that you should buy this book, and buy lots of copies. Give it to friends, loved ones, and small ferrets. It’s a great game.

Written by ElJeffe on April 22nd, 2003