Here's the Hero System 4th edition Bundle of Holding.  It includes the Big Blue Book- yes, that one.   Holy sweet fucky indeed!

if you hear a loud noise, that's just Hyperman howling in complete victory over this:)

40USD?  Ah, nuts.  That's out of my price range, sadly.

$40 dollars for 65 books? Of the most playable & best version o the game?
sign me up!

Just waiting for a later version of the Bundle that includes all the campaign books like Ninja Hero and Horror Hero...

Quote from: Christopher Brady;95670740USD?  Ah, nuts.  That's out of my price range, sadly.

   Even the $15 core of the Essentials bundle contains enough to maintain a game for years.

Hero 4th...you bastards keep telling me it's the best version.  Ima smack somebody if it still sucks.

I can't very well get Hero and leave behind Heavy Gear and Advanced Fighting Fantasy, can I?

Oh goddamnit.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;956778Even the $15 core of the Essentials bundle contains enough to maintain a game for years.

I want the Dark Champions stuff, which is the expansion price.  The Ultimate Martial Arts stuff is also useful as well.  AND they have decent PDF copies of the Champions: New Millennium three books?  Don't get me wrong, just that alone is worth the $55CDN asking price and I WANT it, the rest of the stuff is just gravy.

But I can't afford it.

Some questions...

The martial arts seem pretty robust, what does Ninja Hero get you that the Rules and Ultimate Martial Artist don't?

Is there a Cyber Hero for doing Cyberpunk?  If not, where's the list of Cyber "powers"?

Was there a Star Hero for 4th and did it have ship construction?

What does Fantasy Hero get you that the Rules plus Ultimate Magic and Mentalist don't?

Why does 4th seem like a role-playing game written in English while 6th seems like a Vulcan Tech Manual?

Assuming you are NOT going to use HERO for Supers, what are the best supplements?

What are the major bugs/pitfalls/known issues/broken rules/etc. in 4th, what do you watch out for?

Just bought this for completeness myself and to throw a little dosh Hero's way. CRKrueger, this may not be the bundle you want, as it is really a Champions oriented bundle and doesn't include any of the other genre material. Personally, I would say either 5th or 6th are the best editions, so it would depend on what aspects of Hero you like and what aspects bother you.

Quote from: CRKrueger;956863Some questions...

The martial arts seem pretty robust, what does Ninja Hero get you that the Rules and Ultimate Martial Artist don't?

I used to have UMA and later picked up NH.  The major difference are mainly the packages, NH has career style packages specifically the various type of martial artists, like the Wuxia adventurer to Japanese Samurai and Ninja to American Martial Arts hero that showed up during the 80's.  It also has ideas for themes and types of campaigns as well, I think.  It's been years since I've had my books.

Hence why I want this package.

Quote from: CRKrueger;956863Is there a Cyber Hero for doing Cyberpunk?  If not, where's the list of Cyber "powers"?

There was a Cyber Hero for 4th, it came out in 1990.  During the tail end of the Cyberpunk craze.

Quote from: CRKrueger;956863Was there a Star Hero for 4th and did it have ship construction?

Don't think so.  Can't find any mention of it.

Quote from: CRKrueger;956863What does Fantasy Hero get you that the Rules plus Ultimate Magic and Mentalist don't?

Fantasy Hero covered everything, from weapons to archetypes (like the Heavy Fighter and Light Fighter, for those of you who liked your Wall That Walks and you're lithe swashie sword pokers.  Different types of magic users and rogues and all that), to some basics of magic (which was pretty extensive, considering the size of the book) and several campaign suggestions.  It also had a break down of the 'types' of Fantasy genres and what they tend to entail (High Fantasy a la D&D, in which magic is everywhere as are races, but the Universe tends to as Neutral as a Sword and Sorcery one, which is mostly humanocentric and tends to favour the fighting man, as opposed to the magic user.  Epic Fantasy is the Tolkien style, single world shaking threat, so on and so forth.)

Quote from: CRKrueger;956863Why does 4th seem like a role-playing game written in English while 6th seems like a Vulcan Tech Manual?

People change as they get older.

Quote from: CRKrueger;956863Assuming you are NOT going to use HERO for Supers, what are the best supplements?

Fantasy Hero, Ninja Hero and Ultimate Martial Arts for non-superpowered game play.  Dark Champions core book if you're looking for a more modern feel, as although you can do the super vigilante thing, it lends itself pretty good to the 80's maverick/renegade cop feel.  As well as G.I.Joe style games if you want.

Quote from: CRKrueger;956863What are the major bugs/pitfalls/known issues/broken rules/etc. in 4th, what do you watch out for?

This is also something I'd like to know.

Quote from: CRKrueger;956863Some questions...

The martial arts seem pretty robust, what does Ninja Hero get you that the Rules and Ultimate Martial Artist don't?

  Don't know--that's one of the 4E books I've never read, although I just nabbed a $2 copy off of eBay. OTOH, it's Aaron Allston, so that's arguably +2 right there.

QuoteIs there a Cyber Hero for doing Cyberpunk?  If not, where's the list of Cyber "powers"?

  There's a 4E Cyber Hero, but it's not particularly well-regarded as I understand.

QuoteWas there a Star Hero for 4th and did it have ship construction?

  Nope--Star Hero and Pulp Hero/Justice Inc. were left behind during the 4E run, and only got updated in the 5E era. Horror, cyberpunk and westerns, by contrast, got their last HERO treatments to date in the 4E era.

QuoteWhy does 4th seem like a role-playing game written in English while 6th seems like a Vulcan Tech Manual?

  5E and 6E are Steve Long's babies. He does very good work, IMO, but it tends to the overly comprehensive and occasionally dry.

Ninja Hero explodes the 2 pages of martial arts in the core book to an entire section of the book devoted to martial arts of all kinds -- the other section of the book is about different martial arts campaigns that you could run. (Remember the 80s B- Movie industry was alive with American Ninja and other such fare...)

Star Hero was never in print for 4e but the playtest draft was released and can be found if you look up Red October (the fansite for the old 4e game).

Cyber Hero was iffy. The Hero System works with you using the mechanics to come up with the game effect and the 'special effects' created by you. Restrained -1/4 is one Limitation you will need to know ( it shows that your cyber could be disrupted by EMP attacks, tasers, and direct damage to the parts itself). And Extra Dimension Travel is used for hacking into cyberspace.

Never read Ultimate Magic or Ultimate Mentalist -- cannot compare.

Why is 4e read better than 5e/6e? This is what I heard/conjectured. 4e was the last version that had the original writers involved. They were old school gamers from back in the day. Steve Long is a Rules Lawyer. The old management saw his manuscript (which became 5e) and flat out rejected it. They never saw Hero complicated, but did not think going in the direction of more complexity was a great idea.

Number one problem with Hero -- just because it is possible does not mean it is right. Champions contains examples of how the player can create min-max power Munchkins. The GM has to be able to say NO. Experience seeing the game actually played is paramount. And the GM has to look over a created PC when he sees how powerful a trick that he (the GM) has already approved and retcon the bejesus out of the PC.

(The system starting with 5e started moving towards the rule master -- the guy/gal who lived and breathed RAW. That is fine. But that is a niche within a niche. 6e seemed to be a power grab by Steve Long to change the system just for the sake of change. Dropping fixed characteristics does make sense, but it leaves you with 17 stats and the system becomes a completely gamist system then the simulation that it began as. These are just my , could be wrong...)

This is the Champions Bundle release -- you probably want to wait for the inevitable Hero System Bundle release -- just the Hero System Rulebook and all the campaign settings books like Fantasy Hero and Western Hero.

FYI Go to and purchase the AlterEgo software -- the main system. You will follow that with the Hero 4e module that canbe found in the free give away section. With all that you can create all kinds of characters...

I was always impressed by the range of things you could do with that system, but I could never wrap my poor little brain around it.

There's just about zero chance I'll ever play Hero 4 again. But good lord, there's some choice stuff in the Champions Universe collection. Champions in 3D, Invasion Target Earth, and Zodiac Conpsiracy were all decent products and would make good idea fodder for any traditional supers game. I imagine that some of the products I never bought are gold, too!

So much want!

Fixed incomes suck.