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Das Hero System 5th Edition, Hardcover, 592 Seiten stark + Star Hero, Softcover, 325 Seiten zusammen für 30 Euro + 4 Euro Versand.
Teile aus dem RPG-Net review:
First Impressions
It’s been said by many people before: the HERO System 5th Edition Revised book is a big rulebook. (I’ll just refer to the thing as “HERO” from this point on.) It is, in fact, a whopper of a rulebook— a 592-page tome. Pages are printed in black and white only, on what looks like unbleached paper, and the font is small.
A quick flick through the book revealed illustrations maybe every 3 or 4 pages, of varying quality, and depicting images from a variety of genres. The pictures did not seem obtrusive, and their quality seemed pretty reasonable on average.
One word summed up the book for me: businesslike. This book is not aiming to win you over with visual impact. This book is not really trying very hard to sell itself from the shelf. In fact, for such an unashamedly large book, the thing has a muted feel to it. This book has been built to be used: the binding is durable, more durable than just about every other RPG products I own; also, the book stays open when laid down flat, which is particularly important to me as I do a lot of writing on a PC and frequently need to have a book open on the desk. Lastly, the book seemed surprisingly light for its size and page count. This is also important for me, as I go to every gaming session carrying everything (including beer) in a rucsac, so less weight is a good thing.
In short, the book felt like a workhorse product, with function taking precedence over form.
…..
Conclusions
Yes, HERO is a big book.
For me, HERO does what it says on the tin. It’s a gamer’s toolkit, just as it says, not a complete game+setting+monsters package like (for example) Exalted— but then, that’s not something it tries to be. It’s a physically robust and high-quality product. The rules, though slightly complex in places, are generally very clear, and the abundance of examples goes a long way both to bumping up the size of the book and to clarifying the mechanics and— importantly— their application to a pretty wide variety of situations.
In all, I found the product inspirational. While I was reading it I was imagining just exactly how I could design the particular campaign I had in mind (see the start of this review if you’re only reading the Conclusion) using the HERO system, and as I sat there figuring things out, the whole thing started to sound… cool. The product’s not flawless, but at this pre-play stage, the flaws did not seem significant (and besides, it’s a pretty modular system that does naturally encourage customisation). That dry prose can’t completely suppress a heck of a lot of passion, experience and just plain hard work that’s gone into the system over the years.
HERO may have come from a legacy of Superhero gaming, but from my reading of the book, that’s long gone. Just because the building blocks of ability construction are called “Powers” doesn’t mean that HERO has a particular Superhero bias: sure, it looks like it’ll let you do all that Superhero stuff, but that’s not all; not by a long margin, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in to the design of my first HERO campaign.
HERO’s a big book, but for me, reading it was definitely worth the effort.
Star Hero
The Book
Star Hero is a massive tome. If it were hardcover, it would be larger than most of the MRBs on the market today, clocking in at 325 pages long. It is one of those books that sits in your hand with a feeling of solid weight, or that hangs in your backpack with enough mass to cause you lower back pain. The binding seems solid enough for a perfect-bound book, and the paper is of a good bond quality.
The layout of Star Hero follows Hero Game’s standard two column with narrow sidebars format. This leaves the page clean, with plenty of information spread across even on pages without sidebars. Of course, the sidebars do get a little cramped, but that’s the price for regularity. The layout is also not any kind of inspiring design, nothing pops off the page and screams “Read me! Read me!” As with all previous Hero Games releases the content, and not the format, is supposed to be the draw and so layout is left simple and functional.
In terms of art the book is quite solid. The cover is a really spectacular piece of work, capturing the grandeur, clean line aesthetic, and subtle sense of techno-fetishism that underlies so much of science fiction. The interior art, while not so spectacular, is generally from very solid to quite good. Art fits the sections in which it is placed, giving visual punch to back up the text, as well as providing a good number of archetypal images that GMs could use during play to quickly give PCs a visual image of something from the game.
The Breakdown
After a brief introduction which sets up the book and provides a note about the way the book, and the genre, relate to real world science, Star Hero kicks into high gear with a chapter on the Science Fiction Genre in its many permutations. Working through the various subgenres from Cyberpunk to Utopianism to Low Sci-fi to Space Opera, Star Hero gives a rundown of the basic easily recognizable and playable subsets of sci-fi. It also deals with cross-fertilization from other genres (horror, comedy, etc) and from other Hero Games products.
Character creation is handled in chapter two. This 40+ page long chapter is stuffed with material for those wanting to make a sci-fi character of just about any stripe. Massive numbers of packages for species, professions, and environments combine with detailed advice about using skills, talents, and powers specific to the genre to make characters that are coherent, competent, and fitting to the setting.
The next three chapters cover the “wonders of astronomy” as they relate to sci-fi gaming. Basically, this chapter gives us a run down of everything in the universe, with lots of crunchy game details as well as low jargon explanations of the various elements of modern astronomy that make space based adventures so captivating. Working from the general to the specific, the block finishes with a moderately detailed overview of our own solar system, showing it as an example of how to use systems in game.
Chapter 6 shows that Steve Long and James Cambias didn’t lose sight of the social side of Sci-fi amidst all their technology and astronomy. This chapter details society, culture, and government in sci-fi worlds. This includes sections on human as well as alien worlds, with the emphasis on alien societies. The chapter also has one of the best sections on building alien races that are both alien and yet playable that I have seen.
The next two chapters (7&8) cover technology in sci-fi. The first is a general technology chapter, the second a chapter on spaceships and stations. The two together do an excellent job of giving the item-as-power fetishist everything they could desire, using both pre-built examples of technology and hefty guidelines for building your own.
Chapters 9 and 10 cover the higher-FX aspects of sci-fi, dealing with Time Travel and Psionics respectively. Though these are not the longest chapters of the book, they offer a lot of good advice for using such potentially game-breaking ideas in ways that will enhance a game rather than driving the GM to drink.
Finally, the last two chapters are GM territory. Here we get fank, practical talk about how to put a campaign together, how to mix the big ideas and grand visions of sci-fi with things that actually make for a fun game, how to use NPCs and villains, and a list of generic sci-fi plots. The book then finishes off with a chapter of fully detailed NPCs from the Terran Empire setting. Most of these characters, despite being built for the Hero Games in-house setting, are usable in most sci-fi worlds, and make good examples of how to put the material from the book into practice.
The Good
The level of detail, of game crunch, and of pure love of the material in Star Hero is second to none. While there are some more obscure or up and coming topics of sci-fi that are touched on only lightly, this book does a wonderful job of giving GMs and players a flexible yet detailed set of tools along with copious advice on how to use it not just to make a game or to emulate a sub-genre of sci-fi, but on how to do both and make the result balanced and fun. There is a lot of thought and experience put into the sections that detail how a game must work differently from a novel or movie, and how that difference relates to the use of genre tropes. Combining this with the massive numbers of crunchy tools, everything from pregenerated ships to random universe creators, and you have a really impressive book.
Added to those already strong features are the traditional strengths of a Hero Games book. The index is massive and complete. The editing is solid. The attention to detail is amazing. The errors are few. The final treat in the list of goods is the strong bibliography and filmography, which is offers very strong representational works without drowning us in an attempt to be complete. I was especially pleased by the fact that RPGs by other companies were listed as reference sources, something which is both classy and highly useful for those wanting more game information.
Teile aus dem RPG-Net review:
First Impressions
It’s been said by many people before: the HERO System 5th Edition Revised book is a big rulebook. (I’ll just refer to the thing as “HERO” from this point on.) It is, in fact, a whopper of a rulebook— a 592-page tome. Pages are printed in black and white only, on what looks like unbleached paper, and the font is small.
A quick flick through the book revealed illustrations maybe every 3 or 4 pages, of varying quality, and depicting images from a variety of genres. The pictures did not seem obtrusive, and their quality seemed pretty reasonable on average.
One word summed up the book for me: businesslike. This book is not aiming to win you over with visual impact. This book is not really trying very hard to sell itself from the shelf. In fact, for such an unashamedly large book, the thing has a muted feel to it. This book has been built to be used: the binding is durable, more durable than just about every other RPG products I own; also, the book stays open when laid down flat, which is particularly important to me as I do a lot of writing on a PC and frequently need to have a book open on the desk. Lastly, the book seemed surprisingly light for its size and page count. This is also important for me, as I go to every gaming session carrying everything (including beer) in a rucsac, so less weight is a good thing.
In short, the book felt like a workhorse product, with function taking precedence over form.
…..
Conclusions
Yes, HERO is a big book.
For me, HERO does what it says on the tin. It’s a gamer’s toolkit, just as it says, not a complete game+setting+monsters package like (for example) Exalted— but then, that’s not something it tries to be. It’s a physically robust and high-quality product. The rules, though slightly complex in places, are generally very clear, and the abundance of examples goes a long way both to bumping up the size of the book and to clarifying the mechanics and— importantly— their application to a pretty wide variety of situations.
In all, I found the product inspirational. While I was reading it I was imagining just exactly how I could design the particular campaign I had in mind (see the start of this review if you’re only reading the Conclusion) using the HERO system, and as I sat there figuring things out, the whole thing started to sound… cool. The product’s not flawless, but at this pre-play stage, the flaws did not seem significant (and besides, it’s a pretty modular system that does naturally encourage customisation). That dry prose can’t completely suppress a heck of a lot of passion, experience and just plain hard work that’s gone into the system over the years.
HERO may have come from a legacy of Superhero gaming, but from my reading of the book, that’s long gone. Just because the building blocks of ability construction are called “Powers” doesn’t mean that HERO has a particular Superhero bias: sure, it looks like it’ll let you do all that Superhero stuff, but that’s not all; not by a long margin, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in to the design of my first HERO campaign.
HERO’s a big book, but for me, reading it was definitely worth the effort.
Star Hero
The Book
Star Hero is a massive tome. If it were hardcover, it would be larger than most of the MRBs on the market today, clocking in at 325 pages long. It is one of those books that sits in your hand with a feeling of solid weight, or that hangs in your backpack with enough mass to cause you lower back pain. The binding seems solid enough for a perfect-bound book, and the paper is of a good bond quality.
The layout of Star Hero follows Hero Game’s standard two column with narrow sidebars format. This leaves the page clean, with plenty of information spread across even on pages without sidebars. Of course, the sidebars do get a little cramped, but that’s the price for regularity. The layout is also not any kind of inspiring design, nothing pops off the page and screams “Read me! Read me!” As with all previous Hero Games releases the content, and not the format, is supposed to be the draw and so layout is left simple and functional.
In terms of art the book is quite solid. The cover is a really spectacular piece of work, capturing the grandeur, clean line aesthetic, and subtle sense of techno-fetishism that underlies so much of science fiction. The interior art, while not so spectacular, is generally from very solid to quite good. Art fits the sections in which it is placed, giving visual punch to back up the text, as well as providing a good number of archetypal images that GMs could use during play to quickly give PCs a visual image of something from the game.
The Breakdown
After a brief introduction which sets up the book and provides a note about the way the book, and the genre, relate to real world science, Star Hero kicks into high gear with a chapter on the Science Fiction Genre in its many permutations. Working through the various subgenres from Cyberpunk to Utopianism to Low Sci-fi to Space Opera, Star Hero gives a rundown of the basic easily recognizable and playable subsets of sci-fi. It also deals with cross-fertilization from other genres (horror, comedy, etc) and from other Hero Games products.
Character creation is handled in chapter two. This 40+ page long chapter is stuffed with material for those wanting to make a sci-fi character of just about any stripe. Massive numbers of packages for species, professions, and environments combine with detailed advice about using skills, talents, and powers specific to the genre to make characters that are coherent, competent, and fitting to the setting.
The next three chapters cover the “wonders of astronomy” as they relate to sci-fi gaming. Basically, this chapter gives us a run down of everything in the universe, with lots of crunchy game details as well as low jargon explanations of the various elements of modern astronomy that make space based adventures so captivating. Working from the general to the specific, the block finishes with a moderately detailed overview of our own solar system, showing it as an example of how to use systems in game.
Chapter 6 shows that Steve Long and James Cambias didn’t lose sight of the social side of Sci-fi amidst all their technology and astronomy. This chapter details society, culture, and government in sci-fi worlds. This includes sections on human as well as alien worlds, with the emphasis on alien societies. The chapter also has one of the best sections on building alien races that are both alien and yet playable that I have seen.
The next two chapters (7&8) cover technology in sci-fi. The first is a general technology chapter, the second a chapter on spaceships and stations. The two together do an excellent job of giving the item-as-power fetishist everything they could desire, using both pre-built examples of technology and hefty guidelines for building your own.
Chapters 9 and 10 cover the higher-FX aspects of sci-fi, dealing with Time Travel and Psionics respectively. Though these are not the longest chapters of the book, they offer a lot of good advice for using such potentially game-breaking ideas in ways that will enhance a game rather than driving the GM to drink.
Finally, the last two chapters are GM territory. Here we get fank, practical talk about how to put a campaign together, how to mix the big ideas and grand visions of sci-fi with things that actually make for a fun game, how to use NPCs and villains, and a list of generic sci-fi plots. The book then finishes off with a chapter of fully detailed NPCs from the Terran Empire setting. Most of these characters, despite being built for the Hero Games in-house setting, are usable in most sci-fi worlds, and make good examples of how to put the material from the book into practice.
The Good
The level of detail, of game crunch, and of pure love of the material in Star Hero is second to none. While there are some more obscure or up and coming topics of sci-fi that are touched on only lightly, this book does a wonderful job of giving GMs and players a flexible yet detailed set of tools along with copious advice on how to use it not just to make a game or to emulate a sub-genre of sci-fi, but on how to do both and make the result balanced and fun. There is a lot of thought and experience put into the sections that detail how a game must work differently from a novel or movie, and how that difference relates to the use of genre tropes. Combining this with the massive numbers of crunchy tools, everything from pregenerated ships to random universe creators, and you have a really impressive book.
Added to those already strong features are the traditional strengths of a Hero Games book. The index is massive and complete. The editing is solid. The attention to detail is amazing. The errors are few. The final treat in the list of goods is the strong bibliography and filmography, which is offers very strong representational works without drowning us in an attempt to be complete. I was especially pleased by the fact that RPGs by other companies were listed as reference sources, something which is both classy and highly useful for those wanting more game information.
