Owing to the discussion of Hero System and why some people (especially on this forum) can't get into it, I decided to revise a game review I did of Hero System Sixth Edition at The Banning Place.  Part of the issue is that like GURPS, Hero decided to make its latest edition so huge that they actually had to make it into two core books.  The first is Volume 1: Character Creation.

While this is the first set of Sixth Edition books, they actually aren't the first Hero books to come out with colored pages (the first would be the archvillain Mechanon's sourcebook, Book of the Machine).  Even then the effect isn't too jarring, with most of the trim and header fonts in light blue (DOJ seems to have replaced 5th Edition HERO's green-on-black cover color schemes with happier pastel colors).  The artwork for the chapter opening pages is full-page and full color, and usually very good.

In the Volume 1 Author's Introduction, Steve Long explains the sixth edition as being made necessary by the success of the fifth: "But while so much interest in the HERO System has helped to highlight its strengths and make new gamers aware of them, it's also exposed the weak spots and inconsistencies that inevitably arise in a roleplaying game that's existed and grown for nearly three decades. During the 'DOJ Era' the HERO System's been used in ways it never was before, and used more intensely than ever.  That leads to new ways of thinking about it, new perspectives on it, and a lot of consideration about what could work better and how to make it work better."  Thus, having the opportunity to make a new edition from the ground up, Long did exactly that, acting on the principle "question everything."  The result according to Long: "That which was worth preserving has been preserved; that which deserved removal has been removed; changes have been made if, and only if, they improve the HERO System."  Of course if you're a 5th Edition grognard, and especially if you're one of those who helped debate the proposed changes on the Hero Games Discussion Boards, that may not necessarily be the end of it.

I've already done a whole bunch of reviews for HERO 5th Edition material on RPG.net, so one can read those to get the gist of how Hero System works if you haven't actually played it.  Even so, 6th Edition changes a lot from the basic level; you don't necessarily have to learn the whole thing over again like D&D 4th Edition, because HERO System 6th Edition doesn't change most of the fundamentals.  However, unlike D&D 4, it doesn't really streamline the core system for newbies.  

Some of these core principles are gone over in the (non-author's) Introduction, which refers not only to the Character Creation Volume 1 ('6E1') and the Combat and Adventuring Volume 2 ('6E2') core books but also not-yet-existent books for things like HERO System Vehicles and HERO System Martial Arts.  (In this respect, Hero has actually gotten more generic; the 4th and 5th Editions called their martial arts sourcebooks 'The Ultimate Martial Artist.'  But I suppose it defeats the purpose of an 'Ultimate' edition if it ends up needing a sequel.)  Among other things, the point-based system allows players to buy the powers and effects they want to make with points and adjustments to very basic effects, so that instead of having a pre-defined "Lightning Bolt" effect you would just take a ranged attack power and give it the features you think a lightning bolt should have.

The flipside to this- which in 6E is stressed right from the get-go- is that YOU have to do all the work on designing powers, weapons, etc., or the GM does.  HERO System also assumes that given all those options that players are going to be responsible in using those options and not try to "break" the game system.  (I'd said elsewhere that HERO strikes me as a very 'libertarian' game system; it gives you almost absolute freedom, but it also assumes that you're ethical and know what the hell you're doing.)  This means that the role of the GM is that much more important given that the HERO System needs to be able to simulate every genre even though the group's game of the moment isn't going to use all the rules (e.g. you can't buy Telepathy in a Dark Champions police drama game just because the Power is in the rulebook).  The Introduction does emphasize that given all this, one shouldn't get too caught up in the rules and point calculations if they seem to get in the way of fun or common sense.

In going over system basics, the Introduction throws out a few changes from the start.  HERO is still a system that uses 3d6, "roll under the skill number" for a bell curve.  But previously the game had used a hex system to measure distance with each hex or "inch" being equivalent to 2 meters.  It still uses metrics, but the figures are straight, unlike hexes or D&D "squares": If your character has Flight with a distance of 20m, he has a full-phase move of 20 meters each Phase.

Then the Introduction gives a sample character sheet for the fire-based superhero Firebrand.  It explains each "block" of text as being used for common stats like your "Senses Block" for any special sense abilities, "Attacks and Maneuvers Block" for favorite or common attacks and their combat modifiers, etc. with his Skills, Powers (listed under 'Powers/Equipment') and other data on the back.  Then pages 20-21 go over the most important changes to the system, which are relevant for those of us who want to convert existing characters.  In some cases this may result in the old character costing less points, in which case he gets more points to spend; it's just as likely he'll end up costing more points, in which case the book puts the decision in the hands of the GM: he might allow the player to "grandfather" in the converted power with free points to make up the difference, or for play-balance sake he may require the player to accept the character's traits on a lower value, or even redesign the character from scratch on 6E rules.

By page 27, this leads to Chapter One: Character Creation Basics.  Again, the premise of the HERO System is that rather than rolling a character's stats, you buy everything on points.  Now in the old system you used to have a certain base number of points that you could add to by taking Disadvantages that screwed you in some way- Vulnerability to silver, an accident prone Dependent NPC- up to a certain level (for example the standard superhero got 200 base points and up to 150 in Disads.)  Now the drawbacks are called Complications.  And to reflect that, A. everybody always took their maximum quota of Disads anyway, and B. one often found it hard to get that full quota of points without making the PC a hemophiliac berserker who was hunted by every government on the planet, the base number of points has been increased and includes a value for Matching Complications; if you don't pick up at least that number you have to reduce your base points.  Fortunately that
quota has also been decreased.  For example the standard superhero is a base of 400 points with 75 points in Matching Complications- if you only take 50 points in Complications, you only start with 375 points.

In spending those character points, you assign basic categories, which are each detailed in the later chapters: Characteristics, Skills, Perks, Talents and Powers.  HERO System also makes a distinction between "Heroic" and "Superheroic" campaigns; Heroic characters are generally operating on a "realistic" or near-realistic level.  They usually have certain upper limits on their abilities.  On the other hand, they don't have to pay points for using normal equipment.  Superheroic campaigns focus on characters' superpowers more than their skills- thus such characters have few upper limits on their abilities but do have to pay points for everything, including stuff like weapons and armor.  That is largely for play-balance reasons and also because such characters can easily be bought with Powers (innate or otherwise) that exceed the capabilities of real equipment anyway.  This can get a little nitpicky, of course, so 6E1 has a section called "What Not to Spend Points On."  Basically the need to spend points on a trait is relative to how likely it is to actually come up in the game rules; being a great amateur cook or enthusiast of Italian Literature don't need to cost points, even as background Skills.  If a trait comes up often enough to be useful in game terms, then the GM should consider telling the PC to buy it with points.  By the same token, nothing prevents a superhero from picking up and wielding a weapon he hasn't bought with points, but if he wants it as standard equipment, he has to buy it.  The GM may also rule that superhero PCs can use off-the-rack consumer stuff for no points (what some call 'the Wal-Mart Rule') but the trade-off is that such equipment is more easily destroyed or removed than stuff you paid for.

This chapter says, "To create a character, you need a character conception."  Which should go without saying. This channels your creativity into defining your character's abilities, and also how it would be roleplayed.  There is a sidebar with seven cues for inspiring character design, like a costume motif or a name (ex. 'Ivan the Terrible').  This chapter gives a few brief tables saying how much a character should cost at a certain "level" (like, a Heroic level character is usually 175 with up to 50 points of Matching Complications, but 'Very Powerful' Heroic characters can start with 275 and 50 in Complications).  The tables also include how much should be spent for a certain emphasis- a superhero who emphasizes Characteristics would spend 280 on those, 50 on Skills and 70 on Powers, but the Skill-based hero would spend 160 on Characteristics, 140 on Skills and 100 on Powers/Equipment.

Chapter Two: Characteristics defines the basic traits that every character has- strength, intellect, etc.  This is probably the most radically-changed section of the rules relative to 5th Edition.

See, in prior editions, HERO, like some other games, had core traits (Primary Characteristics) that served as a base or modifier to other traits (Figured Characteristics).  Now, the Figureds aren't Figured anymore.  All characters are assumed to start with certain characteristics at a base of 10, about average or just above average.  These stats are: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Body ('hit points' or how hard you are to kill), Intelligence, Ego (force of will) and Presence (personality) – or, STR, DEX, CON, BODY, INT, EGO, PRE.  There are also other stats: Physical and Energy Defense (PD and ED) or how well you can shrug off a physical blow or energy attack, Speed (SPD), or how many times you get a Phase in a 12-second Turn, Endurance (END) or your physical endurance, often used for Powers, Stun (STUN), how much damage past your defenses it takes to knock you out, Recovery (REC) or how quickly one recovers STUN and END (and in the long term, BODY), plus Offensive Combat Value (OCV), Defensive Combat Value (DCV), Offensive Mental Combat Value (OMCV), and Defensive Mental Combat Value (DMCV) the latter four being your basic figures for how easy you can hit or be hit in physical or mental combat respectively.  Coincidentally, the base of these "other" stats happens to be that which you'd get for a 5th Edition character with stats of 10 on all his Primaries.

Why this matters is that the Figureds were in a way a "package deal" on certain abilities that you got at a higher level just for having high basic stats.  For instance, DEX over 3 was the figure for both your OCV and DCV (a DEX 20 gave a 7 OCV rounding up) and SPD was DEX/10 plus 1 (so 20 DEX yielded a base 3 SPD).  Now, in addition to spending on DEX (which is still used for combat initiative and many Skills) you have to buy SPD up from a base of 2 (when each point costs 10) and BOTH OCV and DCV up from a base of 3, where in 6E each costs 5 points a piece.  To compensate, most of the "Primary" stats that cost more than 1 per point have been reduced to 1 (DEX used to be x3 and is still x2 because of its high utility in this game) but you still end up spending a LOT to get an old character to where he used to be or where a 5th Edition player would think he "should" be.  In review, this is much like how Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition decoupled certain traits like Attack and Defense from their d20 System stat modifiers, and likewise is arguably for the best.  For one thing, DEX is no longer so much of a "god stat."  Not every Olympic gymnast is going to have the gun accuracy of a Clint Eastwood character, and likewise Dirty Harry is not going to as fluid in his moves as the gymnast.  On the other hand, some characters, especially superheroes, are that broadly developed.

(The character sheet gives you an idea of how much this changes things: In the 5th Edition Revised version of the character sheet, Firebrand's Characteristics were 122 points.  On the character sheet in this book, they cost 180. His other stats for Powers and Skills are roughly comparable, but as an example starting superhero, Firebrand now costs 400 points where he used to be 350.)

Again, Characteristics start on a scale where 10 is within the average or just a little above it.  Most heroes who buy up stats above 10 up to 20 are still within normal human bounds, while "Legendary" stats on the level of Sherlock Holmes' INT are above 20 but still not actually "Superhuman" (defined as a stat of 31 or above).  The book suggests an option for Characteristic Maxima, to reflect how rare certain traits should be by making them cost double over a certain point (usually 20).  There is also an option for Skill Maxima where it costs double to raise a Skill Roll over a certain break point (like 13 or less).  GM campaign limits on Damage Classes, Active Points on a Power, etc. are defined as Maxima here.

Chapter Three: Skills details abilities that anyone can technically gain with training, although most of them are modified by Characteristics and thus some are going to be better at certain tasks than others.  Skills are organized in the categories of Agility Skills, Background Skills, Combat Skills, Intellect Skills and Interaction Skills.  Most of these operate on the 3d6 roll.  Most Background Skills can be bought with a base 11 or less (11-) roll for 2 points.  Combat Skills have their own cost structures.  The other skills are usually 3 points each based on a Characteristic Roll (CHA Roll) where the formula is 9 + [CHA/5] so that a character with an 18 INT who buys an Intellect Skill has a base 13- roll (18 over 5 is 4 rounded up, plus 9 is 13).

Most of these work just as they did in 5th Edition.  However there are some little changes one might gloss over.  For instance in addition to the Familiarity (a 1-point skill that gives an 8- roll) there is now the Proficiency that gives a 10- roll, sort of a halfway step to a full Skill. Combat Skill Levels (Combat Skills that add directly to OCV or DCV) are somewhat more expensive so that it requires an 8 point level to be +1 with all hand-to-hand combat OR all ranged combat (these levels used to be 5 per) and it takes a 10 point level to work as "All Combat."  The "Overall" Skill level that could apply to either combat or non-combat skills has likewise been jacked up, to 12 points.  This is another example of point inflation, especially given how expensive OCV and DCV are as basic stats.

Chapter Four: Perks & Talents (with the best chapter picture of the book) goes over both Perks (Perquisites some characters get access to) and Talents.  Perks are non-combat resources that a character could have.  The book says that Perks are by nature transitory and subject to change or removal; for instance one could have a Contact with an important NPC but continued access to that Contact depends on what happens to the NPC, or whether the PC maintains a good relationship with the Contact.  There's also a variant of Contact called "Favor" where the Contact acts on a 14- roll but can only be called in once.  The book says that Perks that are changed or cashed in should allow the PC to get those points back, though this is subject to the GM's ruling.

Talents have always been considered a "halfway step" between Skills and Powers, like Danger Sense or Double-Jointed; they're not impossible for humans to have, but by the same token you can't learn to be Double-Jointed. One obvious change is that 5th Edition, in order to give some guides on how to construct custom Talents, "reverse-engineered" all the existing Talents as limited Powers, which was not entirely popular since it made them look more mechanical.  6E1 goes back to not explaining how Talents are built, which matters in that a lot of the 6E Talents differ enough from the old versions that one wonders where the changes were made.  In particular, Deadly Blow (and its new cousin, Weaponmaster) are not only more expensive as specialized adds to Killing Attacks, they sometimes cost MORE than the actual Killing Attack Power, which kinda defeats the point.

One of the actual new Talents is called Striking Appearance.  Like the Adventure! Pulp game, this trait can be bought to reflect extreme beauty OR ugliness, the difference reflecting exactly which Interaction Skills get a bonus; thus Anakin Skywalker can charm Padme Amidala into not looking at his rotten personality, while the cyborg Darth Vader gets bonuses for terrorizing his underlings.  Which makes sense, especially given that in most editions of the game you could PAY points to reduce your Comeliness Characteristic below 0 to be ugly enough to boost Presence Attacks.  (Even so, it's a potent example of Hero fandom's collective idiosyncrasy that dropping the Comeliness stat for this Talent was EASILY the most controversial and debated aspect of 6th Edition on the company boards.)

Chapter Five: Powers gets to the power-construction rules that are at the heart of HERO's flexibility.  The book defines them typically as abilities "far beyond those of mortal men" including the natural powers of monsters or the spells of magicians.  However a little imagination allows them to work as "super-Skills" reflecting the heightened abilities that some normal humans have in fiction.  For instance, in the aforementioned example, you CAN'T buy straight Telepathy in a realistic police drama campaign, but the GM might allow a PC to get a heavily-limited form of Telepathy based on Deduction Skill, in order to reflect Sherlock Holmes-like levels of observation.  Likewise some equipment is defined in game terms by Powers, in particular weapons.  Of course this again means the GM has to have a handle on what Powers are allowed in his game- even in a superhero campaign, the rules of reality may not allow for certain power origins.

Generally, a power costs a certain ratio for effect (1d6 per 5 character points of power, though in 6E especially, this gets tweaked).  The basic power at the level you buy has a Base Cost (for example an 8d6 Blast is 40 points).  One can further modify the basic power to crank special properties out of it depending on the traits you design for it- like if your stone-based character fires stalactites at people you could buy the Blast with the Power Advantage Armor Piercing, which in the new system has a fractional value of +1/4.  The Active Cost of a Power is the basic power with all Adders (options specific to that Power) and Advantages applied.  In this case 40 points times 1 and ¼ for the Advantage is 50, so the Active Cost of the Stalactite Power is 50 points.  If you want the Power as-is, you leave it like that.  If you want to reduce the cost so you don't have to pay so much for the Power, you apply Limitations on the Active Cost, yielding the total Real Cost you end up paying.  In this example the Stalactite Power which costs 50 points can take a Limitation, Increased Endurance Cost (the stone being is basically firing off parts of himself, and it's stressful).  The character takes this at the x3 level (so the Blast costs 3 times as much END as normal) and the rules state that this level of Limitation is worth -1.  Note that in these calculations, one adds the fractional value to 1 to get the multiplier or divisor, so that while +1/4 on 40 creates 50 (1 x 1 ¼), 50 with a -1 Limitation is 25 (50 divided by [1+1]).  Thus the Real Cost of the Stalactite Power is 25 points with these modifiers.  It can get MUCH more involved than that, but really, that's the gist of it.

As with 5th Edition, 6E organizes Powers in lists of categories: Adjustment Powers ( i.e. 'buffs' and 'de-buffs'), Attack Powers (obvious) Automaton Powers (a new category that referred to the special abilities used to buy robots in 5th Edition and moved here for completeness' sake), Body-Affecting Powers (those that affect one's own body, like Shape Shift), Defense Powers (obvious), Mental Powers (mind-affecting powers that require use of the Mental Combat Value stats), Movement Powers (obvious), Sense-Affecting Powers (ranging from blinding attacks to physical illusions), Sensory Powers (provide the character with enhanced senses), Size Powers (Growth and Shrinking), Special Powers (powers that cannot be put in cost-savings frameworks without GM permission) and Standard Powers (everything else).  It's possible for a given Power to straddle categories- for instance most Mental Powers are by definition Attack Powers.  This chapter reviews each of these power categories in terms of their common traits and which Advantages and Limitations are commonly eligible to Powers in each category.

Needless to say, going over ALL these Powers and their changes would be a book in itself.  Here are some of the highlights.  Terminology has been mostly cleaned up- the aforementioned Blast, for instance, used to be called Energy Blast, even though it always included the option to base it on stalactites, pressurized water, or other effects that could go against Physical instead of Energy Defense.  After 4th Edition, the main Defense Powers had a similar cost structure (including Force Field, if you bought it to 0 END) so now they're all grouped together into the Power "Resistant Protection."  If one wants Resistant Protection that works like a Force Field (it costs END and turns off when you get Stunned or can't pay END) then you apply appropriate Limitations, and voila!  You have Force Field.

There is also a new Power with a giant "!" warning label called Damage Negation.  For every 5 character points you can reduce the damage class of a Physical, Energy or Mental attack by 1 Damage Class before defenses are applied.  Thus, someone throws a 10d6 punch at someone with 6 levels of Physical Damage Negation and so the attacker only gets to roll 4d6 for his punch.  And then of course you still have Damage Reduction to divide any damage that DOES get past your defenses.  Shape Shift still requires a lot of bells and whistles for Adders, but the basic cost is a lot less.  And Regeneration IS back as its own Power.  Thank Gygax.

Chapter Six: Power Advantages gives the actual list of Advantages and Limitations, which work according to the formula I described above.  Major changes here include the new ACV (Alternate Combat Value) Advantage, which allows one to use a different combat stat than the one your power normally targets with (so if Telekinesis is normally a power targeted with OCV, but it's often thought of as a 'Mental' Power, you can buy it as using OMCV instead of OCV), Area of Effect Surface (which can be applied to the ground, an object, or oneself), Damage Shield (which is redesigned here as a variant of Area Surface applied to oneself- this still requires you to buy your Damage Shield's Attack Power as a Constant Power like in 5th Edition, but both Area Surface and Constant cost a lot less than the 5E versions) and AVAD (Attack Versus Alternate Defense) that takes the place of the old No Normal Defense and Attack Vs. Limited Defense Advantages.

Likewise Chapter Seven: Power Limitations gives us the new Limitations for this game.  These are governed by the simple axiom: "A Limitation that doesn't limit the character isn't worth any bonus!"  For instance, if one's Powers "don't work against magic" when magic doesn't exist in the game universe.  On this principle certain limitations are actually Advantages taken to a certain level; for instance a power that has only a few Charges per day is a clear Limitation, but since Charges normally cost no END, buying lots and lots of Charges- say, a belt-feed for your SMG- becomes an Advantage.

Probably the most notable new bit here is the new -1/4 Unified Power Limitation, which is basically a "mutual link" on two or more Powers that are considered to be the same ability, like Human Torch's flame power, which provides both flight and protection.  The Powers don't have to be used at the same time, but if an Adjustment Power is used on one, it also affects everything else that's part of the Unified Power.  This is basically the way the Elemental Control Power Framework was done in 5th Edition, but Elemental Control was done away with because it was unpopular with a lot of people (mainly the author).  Which leads to-

Chapter Eight: Power Frameworks.  There are now only two Frameworks, or cost-saving Power arrangements, in 6th Edition: Multipower and Variable Power Pool.  One hasn't changed too much and the other has.  Multipower allows one to have set a reserve pool of points (say, 50) and then buy slots of Powers that are each within the Active Points of the reserve (in this example, each slot can be no more than 50 Active Points).  Slots can either be 'fixed' (cost 1/10th the Active Points, but all the reserve points have to be used on that one Power) or 'variable' (cost 1/5th the Active Points, but one can allocate these points- say, if the MP had both a Blast and Flight costing 50 points each as variable slots, the character could allocate 25 points in Blast and have 25 in Flight, or any other combination up to 50 points).  Fixed slots represent an 'array' of Powers, usually Attacks (since you usually can't do more than one Attack action or Power per Phase anyway).  Variable slots (usually bought with a large reserve) represent a single power with a large number of applications, but the more juice you put in one, the less the reserve has for the other Powers.  This section also goes over the permutations of how all this would work- like, if you bought all your Multipower slots as removable Foci (gadgets) it would defy common sense to kill the entire Multipower just because your enemy stole the one gadget you happened to be using.  But if you bought all of these on a single other gadget, like a utility belt or bandolier, then the reserve would have a smaller Focus Limitation to reflect that and the individual slots would still have the full Focus bonus for being accessible Foci.

What's really changed is the Variable Power Pool.  In the ancient days of Champions, this used to be the Gadget Pool, then the Magic Pool.  Basically it allows you to make up all the miscellaneous powers some heroes can pick up (like an arsenal of weapons, or Dr. Strange's near-infinite range of spells).  The Pool has two components: The Pool itself, which has a Base Cost that can never be reduced by Limitations, and the Control Cost which is usually half that but can take Limitations (like a Gadget Pool where every Power is built in a Focus item).  In the pre-4th Edition rules, the Pool represented the Real Cost of the total number of Powers assigned to the VPP (so a Gadget Pool with a small base Pool could actually have a Power with a very high Active Cost if it had enough Limitations to fit in the Pool).  In 4th and 5th Editions this was considered a bit over-powered, so VPP got restricted so that the Pool also represents the limits of the Active Cost of any one Power in addition to the total amount of Real Cost points it can fit.

In 6E, the Pool Cost and the Control Cost are now independent of each other.  The Pool is still 1 for 1 but the Control Cost is 1 for 2 character points and the Pool once again represents the Real Cost of any Power that can be fit in it.  One example they list is a magician who spent 25 points on his Pool and 40 on his Control Cost to get a Control Cost of 80, meaning that while any given Power has to cost 25 real points or less, any Power in the VPP can have up to 80 Active Points, representing very powerful but very Limited spells.  You can of course still buy the now-traditional VPP where you spend X number of points for the Pool and half of X for the Control Cost to get a Pool where Real and Active Cost ceilings are the same, but this allows for a lot more options.  By default a Variable Power Pool takes anywhere from 1 Turn to 1 Minute to re-allocate the points, or in most cases a character can buy a Power Skill to change the Powers in combat (usually named for the special effect, like 'Magic Skill' or 'Gadgeteering') but even then this takes a Full Phase.  There are two +1 Advantages one can take on the Control Cost, 'No Skill Roll Required' and 'Powers Can Be Changed As A Zero-Phase Action' which together are usually called "Cosmic" because with this you get a true omni-power like the Silver Surfer's, that allows the hero to perform any effect within his point limits at will.

Chapter Nine: Character Complications goes over not only the list of Complications in HERO but how they work in 6th Edition.  As with Limitations, these are subject to the meta-rule: "A Complication that isn't a complication isn't worth any points!"  (As in, 'Hatred of Orcs' in a SF campaign where there are no Orcs.)  Another element that is stressed in 6E is that Complications are there to be used- the player chose them because he expects them to come up for his character and they help define that PC.  Thus, rather than assigning a frequency roll (like 'Hunted by archenemy on 11 or less every adventure), 6E gives a Complication Frequency Table showing how limiting a Complication is by how often it should come up in a campaign.  This is on a scale where 'Uncommon' is once every five sessions or so and 'Extremely Common' is practically every adventure.  Previously some Disadvantages (like Physical Limitation) were expressed in similar terms, but this is the first place where the level of frequency is codified.  One other point that's stressed in the early part of the book is that *because* Complications are expected to be used, the GM should actually consider reducing the Matching Complications in a PC's point quota depending on how many PCs there are.

Chapter Ten: Example Characters gives a step-by-step example of how to make a Pulp HERO character, Randall Irons.  There are also examples of typical children, senior citizens and normal guys, in addition to "Skilled Normal" and "Competent Normal" characters that would be likely to fight PCs.  These hew very closely to how they were built in 5th Edition as far as their stats but of course require more points to get there (the Competent Normal in 5th used to be a 75 point character and is a round 100 here).

The Appendix includes templates for what traits a character would have at a certain size level, because while Growth, Shrinking and Density Increase all have certain adjustments to abilities when turned on, they are not meant to be made persistent powers, even "Always On."  In order to have these abilities permanently (like an elephant, or a tiny animal) you have to buy them straight out.  There are also Complications for being permanently smaller or heavier than man-size and mass.  There is also a page showing how the Talents in this book were built with 6E1 Powers.  (Oh. HERE it is.)

After the Appendix there's a typically complete Hero index, which, like the Table of Contents, actually includes the references for Volume Two as well as One.

NEXT: HERO System Sixth Edition Volume 2: Combat and Adventuring.  In which your newly created character learns how to inflict damage on the outside world and himself.

Interesting review. What about the second volume?

Quote from: Dumarest;963519Interesting review. What about the second volume?

Oh.  Hold on...

jg