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Hi there! I'm new around here... problem is, I have the old Hero System book (4th/Big Blue Book) from the 80's. It's actually my parents' and it's actually all I've got, since I can't afford the new edition. Are the Hero System settings for 4th or 5th, or even 6th, edition of the game? Is there a place where I could download the settings for the edition I have?

It is 5th edition. I don't know of any other edition.

THank you. I'm sorry to bother you with this - I feel a little embarrassed. I mean, why deliberately play with an outdated edition of a game? Newer editions being better/more balanced and all that. The kind of nostalgia and support for the old edition D&D doesn't seem to transfer to other games.

No reason to be embarrassed. I know many people who play old and out of print games. In User Creations/Campaign Frameworks section there is a framework for both 5th and 6th editions. Here is the problem for you. 5th edition is still mostly like 4th and you might be able to us it. 6th edition has serious changes when compared to 4th edition. When I was making the 5th edition framework maptool's capabilities and my coding abilities were both continuously increasing, so it more evolved rather then was planned. The 6th ed framework that Nolgroth made was well planned out and very user friendly.

Unfortunately Maptool was very basic when 4th was still around, so there is no existing framework for it. You don't need a framework though. Just a few basic macros for Stat tracking and dice rolling can speed up things nicely. Good luck!

Brad

Heh, no reason to worry about old versions! When D&D 4e came out a large number of players went to the old versions of it.

The campaign frameworks that brad is talking about are for MapTool and they do not work with Char Tool. Those campaign files might have a way to create characters in them, but you wouldn't be able to use them in Char tool.

jay wrote:
The campaign frameworks that brad is talking about are for MapTool and they do not work with Char Tool. Those campaign files might have a way to create characters in them, but you wouldn't be able to use them in Char tool.

Oops, sorry about that! I just hit "new posts" and didn't look at the category.

13thSyndicate wrote:THank you. I'm sorry to bother you with this - I feel a little embarrassed. I mean, why deliberately play with an outdated edition of a game? Newer editions being better/more balanced and all that. The kind of nostalgia and support for the old edition D&D doesn't seem to transfer to other games.

I have been a big supporter of Hero System over the years and have bought every update as soon as they released one. However 6th edition changed things I rather liked, to solve "problems" I never thought of as problems. Which is why I continue to play 5th. So there's one reason not to play the latest version

HeroDesigner is a worthwhile investment if you have a couple of bucks.

Thank you all for your help! I would like information for both MapTool and CharTool, to help me with this. Are there any good tutorials for how to make the frameworks for MapTool as well? I was worried that if I posted in both Map and CHarTool that I would get in trouble for double-posting, I'm not too familiar with the rules around here yet.

One of the reasons I haven't swapped to either 5th or 6th editions is that I am the definition of 'broke college student' ^^ So I'd love the Hero Creator thing, but... don't have the cash.

Question, does 5th ed. work on basically the same principles/numbers as 4th? I know you said 6th had some major redesigns...

I'd like to work with someone on creating a framework or even the macros, I'm a fast learner even though I'm unexperienced with coding things, I just... don't know where to go to learn how.

Thanks again for all your help ^_^ People seem pretty friendly around here.

I'd be happy to help you with any questions you have for creating a CharTool game file. The place to start is the stickies in the CharTool forum. I'm working on the editor now, but you would have to be able to check the source code out in Eclipse to be able to help with that until the next release.

Alright.

Should I also start a thread in the MapTools forum for that?

13thSyndicate wrote: Question, does 5th ed. work on basically the same principles/numbers as 4th? I know you said 6th had some major redesigns...

There's very little difference between 4 & 5. Having trouble remembering what they were to be honest. I think they adjusted some power costs and the some of the power frameworks. When 5th Ed came out I started moving element into my game straight away, without any problems.

6th edition changes some of the characteristics (drops COM for example) and changes the costs and also drops figured characteristics. If you go to the Hero System forums you will find details about upgrading to 6th. They are almost as friendly there as here

If you are looking for Hero System frameworks I created what I call a Light-Weight Framework for 5th and nolgroth has a More Complete 6th Ed framework

I never used the CharTool for Hero System though, since I prefer to create heroes on paper with a pencil

I know that 5th added some powers and changed the effects of some others for balance; I did play one session in a 5th ed. game but it was a while ago and before playing in any 4th ed. games.

I'll probably just grab the 5th ed. framework since it seems to have the stuff that I want in it for an online campaign. It's a neat little framework with some good functions; kudos for prgramming it!

And, since the powers aren't hard-coded in, the minor differences between 4th and 5th don't look like they'll be a problem. Definitely be playing with this.

13thSyndicate wrote:Definitely be playing with this.

Cool. If you have any problems, post questions in the framework thread and I'll do my best to help.