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Another two revived bundles - Hero system
Hero System 6E
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Hero6-2023
This is one of two revivals in progress featuring the 2009 Sixth Edition of the HERO System from Hero Games. This revived February 2021 HERO System 6E Bundle offer once again presents the Sixth EditionHERO System core rulebooks, major supplements, and campaign sourcebooks. If you're new to the HERO System, start here. The companion revival from February 2021, Champions 6E, has the superheroic line of campaign supplements and sourcebooks, including the standalone Champions Complete rulebook. For players familiar with Dungeons & Dragons who are starting to explore the wider RPG hobby, HERO is – well, it's a lot. D&D defines its characters, spells, monsters, and treasures with fixed requirements and specific details. In contrast, HERO gives you a carpentry shop and says, "Build what you want." Think of D&D as a restaurant menu of prepared dishes, and HERO as a supermarket with every ingredient you'd ever need for every dish from a grilled cheese sandwich to Babette's Feast – but you cook it yourself. It's great! It's exhilarating! So is bungee jumping, another hobby that's not for everyone.
Like Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft, HERO (especially 6E) is a project. Hero Games gives away a simple Hero in Two Pages introduction, and YouTube has plenty of HERO System tutorials, but if you're new to the game, you should gird your loins and prepare to engage. If you do, this system can support every campaign you'll ever run, bar none.
Across five editions from 1980 to 2009, Champions and the HERO System maintained remarkable consistency. A character built way back in First Edition, though underpowered by the standards of Fifth Revised Edition, can nonetheless wade into a FRED battle basically unchanged. But Hero Games line developer Steven S. Long, the prolific mainstay of the line, saw opportunities to fix a few minor issues that had bothered him and others. On the Hero forums in 2008 he solicited discussion and feedback in a topic that eventually accumulated several thousand posts. Steve read them all, discussed them a lot, and eventually synthesized a truly gigantic two-volume, 788-page rules set that did, indeed, fix those minor issues.
Sixth is the first version that makes breaking changes to backward compatibility, though these revisions make barely a ripple compared to, say, D&D 3.x > 4E > 5E. Most heroes designed for previous editions still work fine in 6E, though if you care about accurate point totals, a conversion requires significant tuning. [Jargon alert: For those familiar with HERO, Sixth Edition drops the venerable cost breaks for Figured Characteristics, and compensates by upping a character's starting character points. Some skill prices have changed, a few powers (especially Adjustments) are reworked and repriced, and Elemental Controls have given way to "Unified Power." The most significant design revision is a slight nerfing of Killing Attacks: The Stun Multiple is reduced, and non-resistant defenses work against KAs by default. On the other hand, Armor Piercing is now a +1/4 advantage – cheap!]
For a few years after its debut, 6E amplified in the HERO community the previously negligible annoyance of edition wars. Much of this tension arose because 6E requires a technical shift in thinking about character conceptions and point costs. Now players tend to view its changes as logical and sensible, if sometimes over-detailed. (When a HERO fan calls rules "over-detailed," you may justly raise an eyebrow.) Sixth Edition, like every HERO edition, has its particular adherents – but 6E has earned wider respect as one more evolution of a landmark system that, across 40 years, still draws devoted fans.
In both page count and discount off retail price, these two revivals once again offer some of the best values we've ever presented. We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their devices.
Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to these two HERO 6E revivals' pandemic-related charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.
The total retail value of the titles in this revived offer is US$258. Customers who pay just US$9.95 get all three essential HERO 6E rulebooks in our Core Collection (retail value $55) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete two-volume 6E rulebook (V1 Character Creation and V2 Combat and Adventuring), as well as the HERO System Basic Rulebook that, at 138 pages, provides a concise introduction.
Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $39.95 to start, also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with ten more titles worth an additional $203, including both the Advanced Player's Guide and Player's Guide II rules expansions; the 6E Equipment Guide and Skills; the Grimoire, Martial Arts, and the 6E Bestiary; the Sixth Edition versions of Star Hero and Fantasy Hero; and your guide to building any headquarters from a walk-in closet to a kingdom, The Ultimate Base.
Champions 6E
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Champs6-2023
This February 2021 Champions 6E Bundle is the second of two revivals in progress featuring the 2009 Sixth Edition of the HERO System from Hero Games. The first offer, HERO 6E from February 2021, once again presents the universal rulebooks and generic supplements and sourcebooks that let you create any kind of character and campaign. This companion offer, Champions 6E, adds the superhero-specific rules, campaign books, and sourcebooks for Champions, The Super Roleplaying Game We provide each title complete in .PDF. Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these ebooks have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their devices.
Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to these two HERO 6E revivals' pandemic-related charity,Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.
The total retail value of the titles in this revived offer is a very rich US$198.50. Customers who pay just US$12.95 get all four titles in our Character Collection (retail value $65) as DRM-free ebooks: the standalone Champions Complete rulebook (retail price $20); the Champions Sixth Edition campaign sourcebook (retail $20); Powers (retail $20); and a collection of pregenerated superhero characters, Book of Templates (retail $5).
Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $39.95 to start, also get this revival's entire Campaign Collection with six more titles worth an additional $97.50, including the 6E version of Champions Universe (retail $20); the Galaxy-spanning Champions Beyond (retail $20); all three volumes of the massive Villains series – V1 Master Villains (retail $20), V2 Villain Teams (retail $20), V3 Solo Villains (retail $28.50) – and Book of the Empress (retail $25) plus its Booklet of the Empress, a 45-page bonus collection of characters provided to backers of the December 2011 Kickstarter campaign.
Last time I said "Most of the material in both offers is new to these bundles, and very good value if you're a long-time Hero System or Champions fan who has been thinking about going over to the new rules, or adapting new material to the old rules, or a newcomer who wants to dive in with the latest revisions.
The down side to all this is that the Hero System has never been the simplest of games - the rules can get complicated and reward optimaxing. Some activities, most notably combat, play fairly slowly. In short, there are alternatives that may be more suitable for a newcomer or someone who prefers a faster style of play.
I'll be honest, I'm not enough of an enthusiast to want to dive in and learn it all over again, since I don't think I've actually played any of these games any time this century! If you're already using another multi-genre system you might do better to look at its superhero rules first, but if you're already using the Hero System this could be a very good buy."