Eodin Posted February 17, 2015 Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 Hi folks, Not to detract at all from the Traveller HERO conversations going, but we've been asked to work on another setting sourcebook for a space opera type setting to HERO 6th edition. If I keep getting asked, I must be doing SOMETHING right... I'd like to get feedback from people on what they do and don't want in a HERO sourcebook setting for Star Hero. Here's where I'm coming from... The IP is purchased, so we don't have the same restriction we did with Traveller HERO, we can do almost anything we want with it. Now, we've done a lot of work reorganization the information so we can see the light, medium, and dense material, information-wise. We'll have the basic sections: History Races and templates Professions and templates Governments Gadgets and Weapons Ships Psionics Longwinded way of asking... Beyond looking for a specific niche, like Traveller, Star Trek, Star Wars, Serenity, and the quality of the writing/material provided, what do you look for in a source / setting book that makes it worth spending money on? Things like "Don't reference books that I haven't bought and may not purchase", or "Don't provide non-canon material even if it's logical", or "Give me lots of psionics" or ... Thanks for all helpful feedback! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted February 17, 2015 Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 Is this expected to be a single book, or a product line with ongoing support? And by support I mean expanding upon areas touched upon in the main source book, fleshing out the races, their armies and navies, their native flora/fauna, etc. providing pre-made adventures, alien bestiaries, and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eodin Posted February 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 The latter is our plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted February 17, 2015 Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 Don't reference books that I haven't bought and may not purchase. Don't provide non-canon material even if it's logical. Give me lots of psionics. Actually, scratch that last one. If psionics is a factor in the setting (such as Traveller or Babylon 5), then please give me lots of psionics. If it's not (such as Star Trek, or Battlestar Galactica), then please give me none. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted February 17, 2015 Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 Okay, here's my $0.02: In terms of dependencies, it can be safely assumed that players will have some form of the system rules. Which set you choose to base this product line upon is up to you, but since 6E1/6E2 is deprecated and space opera != fantasy, I would go with Champions Complete. I can see why you might want to assume players should also have Star Hero, but IMO that is a builder's book that is more necessary for you while you create this setting than for players when they use your setting. Ideally, all I should really need is CC and your book(s). Now, when I hear the phrase "space opera", I think of Lensman and Star Wars. I don't think of Star Trek or Dr. Who or Galactica. I think of huge empires with impossibly powerful space fleets, lots of rubber science, alien species everywhere, and a swashbuckling tone. One thing I do not want in my space opera, though, is time travel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eodin Posted February 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2015 Good to know. Answers a few of my "should I or shouldn't I" thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted February 18, 2015 Report Share Posted February 18, 2015 Give me lots of psionics. epic. Everything should be on an epic scale. A whole galaxy to explore, or better still, a galactoc cluster. Give us massive ships that are actually balanced so one could conceivably run a ship battle in a single session without wanting to pull our hair out or contemplating sepuku. Give us antagonists worthy of being space opera villains. Implacable dark lords and otherworldly horrors. Bring thr epic. Weapons, weapons and yet more weapons and some armor and more armor with weapons built in and powered armor. Did i mention the weapons We want a lot of them. And make sure they have personality. Nothing worse than a bland scifi weapon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Tom 2009 Posted February 19, 2015 Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 Give me lots of psionics. epic. Everything should be on an epic scale. A whole galaxy to explore, or better still, a galactoc cluster. Give us massive ships that are actually balanced so one could conceivably run a ship battle in a single session without wanting to pull our hair out or contemplating sepuku. Give us antagonists worthy of being space opera villains. Implacable dark lords and otherworldly horrors. Bring thr epic. Weapons, weapons and yet more weapons and some armor and more armor with weapons built in and powered armor. Did i mention the weapons We want a lot of them. And make sure they have personality. Nothing worse than a bland scifi weapon... It's a shame that Dizzy Dan isn't here on the forum anymore. His Space Opera Villain thread would've been handy here. Major Tom 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WistfulD Posted February 19, 2015 Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 If you are going to include gadgets and vehicles, make sure that I, the reader can reverse engineer how they were built (either have the build listed out like in Star Hero, or with a pre-emptory paragraph such as, "all these items were built with OAF, megascale (1m=1km), and a continuing fuel charge for 1 hr." I bought an independently made sci-fi setting book for Hero 5th/6th, mostly for ideas in my own campaign, and although the ships had stats, they did not have the powers that made them up slotted out, so I had no idea how the changes I would make would fit in. That book is now trash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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