Yesterday I picked up the latest Bundle of Holding containing 6 Hero System products, namely Champions Complete, The Hero System Equipment Guide, the Hero System Resource Kit, Fantasy Hero, Pulp Hero, and Star Hero. I have to admit I haven’t played any Hero System game before, but I own the Hero Basic Rulebook for 6th Edition which I leafed through a couple of times. While Hero System looks a bit crunchier than my regular fare (especially when it comes to character creation) I am interested to give it a try in the future.
But since I am no Hero System veteran some questions cropped up. Is the Basic Rulebook sufficient to make use of the books in the Bundle of Holding? How compatible is the 6th Edition to the 5th? Luckily the three bonus books in the bundle are not just Hero System sourcebooks but more like treatises of their respective genres. I’m sure I’ll get my money’s worth out of Fantasy Hero and Star Hero even without actually running a Hero System game.
Are there any Hero System experts among my readers? If so, could you please share your experiences with Hero System with me? What should I pick up in the future to being able to properly run a game using the system or should the Basic Rulebook have me covered? As always every comment is highly appreciated.
And if you haven’t done so, check out the Hero System Bundle. It’s an awesome value for the minimum price of just $6.95. If you’re beating the average price, you’ll get all the stuff listed above including the awesome Fantasy Hero and Star Hero.
Champions Complete is standalone (as is Monster Hunter, but it isn’t included in the bundle). CC is a great starting point because it is more streamlined than the core rules and has cut out a bunch of stuff you won’t need.
The Equipment and Resource books will not be sufficient to use the other three supplements without the core rules, although they might contain a lot of useful general genre content. I think you would have to pick up some additional rulebooks to get the full use out of them, but you might be able to fake your way through it with just Champions Complete.
You said:
> Is the Basic Rulebook sufficient to make use of the books in the
> Bundle of Holding? How compatible is the 6th Edition to the 5th?
Included in the Bundle is:
HeroSystem6E-ChampionsComplete-FreebiesErrata.zip
That includes a conversion guide for the various Hero editions to Champions Complete: HeroSystem-ChampionsComplete6E-ConvertingCharacters.pdf
That should give you everything you would need at this point. But most of the differences are fairly minor.
> What should I pick up in the future to being able to properly run
> a game using the system or should the Basic Rulebook have
> me covered?
You’re covered. The great strength of Hero is that you can make anything you can imagine with it. The only reason to get other stuff is for inspiration or a reduction of your workload.
Thanks!