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Old 08-25-2019, 01:58 AM   #11
DarkPumpkin
 
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Default Re: Star Hero Aliens

I don't think there was any "Hero Universe" including Star Hero. A Champions Universe, yes. But Star Hero is explicitly a toolkit for SF.
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Old 08-25-2019, 10:40 AM   #12
Irish Wolf
 
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Default Re: Star Hero Aliens

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Originally Posted by DarkPumpkin View Post
I don't think there was any "Hero Universe" including Star Hero. A Champions Universe, yes. But Star Hero is explicitly a toolkit for SF.
Yes, and Fantasy Hero was a toolkit for classic fantasy, and Justice Inc. was explicitly about pulp heroes, and of course Champions was superheroes.

However, the intent at Hero Games, as I recall from the literature of the time, was that all of the games were intended to be part of an overarching narrative, stretching from the Turakian Age untold aeons ago to the star-spanning future of the 31st century. Each game examined a particular slice of that time, and theoretically you should have been able to use a character from one game in another - not sure how well that might have worked in practice, but that was the concept. That's why the officially-published Champions materials always assumed that at some future point, probably around the middle of the 21st century or so, something would happen to repair physics in this region and superheroes would stop coming into existence (they're made possible because in 1940 Nazi sorcerers tried casting a ritual to empower one soldier with superhuman abilities, but fumbled and broke physics to make superheroics work all over the world). That way, they would go away and leave room for Star Hero, just as the sealing of the tomb of Takofanes put Fantasy Hero to bed and let the world develop to the point that Justice Inc. could happen.
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Old 08-25-2019, 12:54 PM   #13
DarkPumpkin
 
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Default Re: Star Hero Aliens

I really doubt there was any intent at Hero Games to create some sort of over-arching meta-setting as you describe. Turakian Age was a 5e product I that you mention so presumably this happened, it at all, in the 5e era. It definitely doesn't apply to 6e because I own all the products and there is not even a passing mention of such a concept, nor is there a Turakian Age or a pulp era supplement for 6e.

Without a quote or a book to back it up, I'll say it never happened. If it did, it was likely to be a throwaway reference or simply a suggestion that you can easily port your characters from one genre to another, which is self-evidently true in Hero.
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Old 08-25-2019, 02:06 PM   #14
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: Star Hero Aliens

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Originally Posted by DarkPumpkin View Post
I don't think there was any "Hero Universe" including Star Hero. A Champions Universe, yes. But Star Hero is explicitly a toolkit for SF.
Yes. However Galactic Champions has a timeline which includes the Star Hero setting books Alien Wars and Terran Empire (and yes, the Turakian Age, Champions and Pulp Heroes). I finally remembered what book it was in. And I just discovered to my surprise I don't have it in PDF which means I must have a physical copy of it.

Last edited by David Johnston2; 08-25-2019 at 02:14 PM.
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Old 08-25-2019, 03:50 PM   #15
Whitestreak
 
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Default Re: Star Hero Aliens

OK, I finally got a chance to check out my friend's Hero Games collection and here are the titles I was able to find that include write-ups of non-human races:

For Star Hero:
Worlds of Empire
Terran Empire
Alien Wars

Champions Beyond, mentioned by David Johnston2

My friend loaned them to me, as I intend to try to convert them to Savage Worlds standards (of which, I am waiting for my Kickstarter supporter set of the newest iteration.)

I also intend to convert the GURPS Aliens to Savage Worlds, just to make the universe more crowded. :)
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Old 08-25-2019, 06:34 PM   #16
DarkPumpkin
 
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Default Re: Star Hero Aliens

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Yes. However Galactic Champions has a timeline which includes the Star Hero setting books Alien Wars and Terran Empire (and yes, the Turakian Age, Champions and Pulp Heroes).
That makes sense - the Champions Universe was definitely a thing.
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Old 08-28-2019, 01:18 AM   #17
ak_aramis
 
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Default Re: Star Hero Aliens

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Originally Posted by DarkPumpkin View Post
I don't think there was any "Hero Universe" including Star Hero. A Champions Universe, yes. But Star Hero is explicitly a toolkit for SF.
SH for 5th explicitly mentions it. It's not a pre-4th concept, but it's there in 5th and 6th explicitly.
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Old 10-06-2019, 01:08 PM   #18
Daniel Dickson
 
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Default Re: Star Hero Aliens

Early in the millennium, when DOJ Inc. bought Hero Games and published Hero System Fifth Edition, Line Developer Steve Long put up a free PDF on the HG website laying out his vision of a shared timeline for all the official settings in all the genres that Hero intended to publish, creating one universe stretching from ancient pre-history to the far future. Almost every setting that Hero published subsequently was fitted into that timeline, and featured a meta-rationale for the rise and disappearance of superheroes, supernatural beings and phenomena, and other extraordinary elements.

While no longer hosted on the present-day HG website, said PDF can still be downloaded from the archived earlier version of the site: https://web.archive.org/web/20060221...roUniverse.pdf
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Old 10-07-2019, 12:43 AM   #19
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: Star Hero Aliens

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Originally Posted by Daniel Dickson View Post
Early in the millennium, when DOJ Inc. bought Hero Games and published Hero System Fifth Edition, Line Developer Steve Long put up a free PDF on the HG website laying out his vision of a shared timeline for all the official settings in all the genres that Hero intended to publish, creating one universe stretching from ancient pre-history to the far future. Almost every setting that Hero published subsequently was fitted into that timeline, and featured a meta-rationale for the rise and disappearance of superheroes, supernatural beings and phenomena, and other extraordinary elements.

While no longer hosted on the present-day HG website, said PDF can still be downloaded from the archived earlier version of the site: https://web.archive.org/web/20060221...roUniverse.pdf
Yeah I remember creating an alternate time line where instead of fading magic got stronger.

Instead of Cyberhero, there was Demon City, a setting in which supernatural predators are on the rise in the cities which they regard as all you can eat buffets and electronics are beginning stop working.

Instead of Solar Hero, there was a setting where some of the cities survived and thrived in an insular kind of way by mastering the arts of magic, while others ended up as demon haunted spook shows. Meanwhile nomadic neobarbarians roam the land threatening small farming communities but hunting the demons who leave their warrens.

Instead of Interstellar Wars, a setting where the surviving cities have taken to the air to avoid the increasingly monster-filled land and brave adventurers descend to scavenge the cities for artifacts of the olden time to be used to create their mix of magic and technology.

After that, they break out into space, creating teleportals that link up the various habitable worlds of the galaxy.

And still later on magic has declined enough that they get superheroes again.

Last edited by David Johnston2; 10-07-2019 at 01:15 AM.
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