Hero Games
This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (October 2015) |
Industry | Role-playing game publisher |
---|---|
Founded | 1981 |
Headquarters | United States |
Products | Champions |
Hero Games (DOJ, Inc
History
In 1981, George MacDonald and Steve Peterson, from San Mateo, California, printed 1,000 copies of a 64-page rulebook for Champions, their super-hero role-playing game, to take to a Bay Area gaming convention. It sold very strongly, enough to form a company, Hero Games. Later, the pair recruited Ray Greer as their sales and marketing partner.[1]
In the following years, the company published two more editions of Champions, two dozen adventures, and several self-contained role-playing games using the Champions core rules as a
Ongoing production and financial troubles plagued the company, however, and in January 1986, Hero Games made an arrangement with
The original partners found new interests: Greer worked for
On April 25, 1996, ICE's role in handling publishing and distribution was taken over by R. Talsorian Games, just before Iron Crown itself suffered financial difficulties in 1997. During this period, Bruce Harlick, who had been the first official hire of Hero Games in 1982, continued in his role as Line Developer. This collaboration also resulted in the Fuzion system, which was successful in itself, but an attempt to publish the Champions game under the new system as Champions: The New Millennium met mixed reviews.
In 2000, Hero Games was bought by Cybergames.com, a gaming portal site which Steve Peterson was working for. Cybergames.com retained Bruce Harlick as president of their Hero Games subsidiary, but eventually decided to leave the publishing market in 2001. In December 2001, a new company called DOJ, Inc. acquired all rights to Hero Games, keeping none of the remaining original staff. DOJ, Inc., consisted of
In 2011 Darren Watts left DOJ, Inc., to pursue other ventures, and warehouse manager Jason S. Walters assumed the role of CEO, acting in consultation with Steve Long and its other investors. The company now focuses on promoting stand-alone products that utilize various versions of the 6th Edition Hero System rules.
Current Publications
Role-playing games
Besides the
All of the above games, as well as nearly all games published by the company, use the Hero System as their basis. While early editions included the system rules with each genre book, this ended with the Fourth Edition of Champions. Currently, the Sixth Edition of the rules is a pair of books, and the "genre books" show how to use the system to reflect the conventions of superheroic, fantasy, science fiction, and other adventure genres.
Former exceptions to the "Hero System only" rule are Champions: The New Millennium and its supplements, published in the late 1990s using the Fuzion system.
Recent Hero Games publications include Champions Complete, a stand-alone, moderately priced book for playing Champions, and the Monster Hunter International Employee Handbook, a stand-alone roleplaying game detailing the world of Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International.
Expansion books
Hero Games also published a series of "ultimate" expansion books for the Fifth Edition, which provided an additional level of detail on specific types of characters or accessories, over what was explained in more general terms in the main Hero System rules or genre books. Examples of this line included The Ultimate Martial Artist and The Ultimate Vehicle. Only one such title has been released for the Sixth Edition, The Ultimate Base, although some older titles are being revised into Hero System Core Library titles such as Hero System Martial Arts and Hero System Vehicles.
Game settings
Finally, the company publishes a number of game settings for its most popular genres, along with supplements to flesh those settings out. The "main" (that is, most strongly supported) setting for
All of the above are supported, to varying extents, by the Digital Hero online magazine.
Hero Comics and Hero Graphics
Many characters seen in the early
Digital Hero online magazine
Digital Hero was the official online magazine for Hero Games, supporting its Hero System games including Champions, Fantasy Hero, Star Hero, Dark Champions, and others. It was published bimonthly in downloadable PDF format, each issue being a fixed 64 pages long not including the cover (and a blank "fluff" page serving as an inside front cover to facilitate double-sided printing). The final issue, number 47, was published in January 2008, although the company did indicate the possibility of a return in the future.[2]
See also
- Steve Long (Hero Games)- Line developer and co-owner
References
- ISBN 978-1907702587.
- ^ Watts, Darren (2008-01-10). "Alas and Farewell, Digital Hero". Retrieved 2008-03-02.
External links
- Official website
- Hero joins R.Talsorian! Usenet announcement about merger
- Theala Sildorian's Gossip Column News about Hero Games from conventions over several years
- Interview with Steven Long 2002, from the Game Players Network
- Allen Varney: RPG Reviews 01 (champions) From Dragon Magazine, includes a history of the company until 190