From: viktor@mks.com (Viktor Haag)
Subject: Re: HERO's cheesy $ flow cost...
Organization: Mortice Kern Systems Inc., Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 16:41:12 GMT

In article <Bt90sn.Krw@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> joshua salter <jsalter@silver.ucs.indiana.edu> writes:
>
>	Why does HERO allow someone to be fabulously wealthy for 20 cp, yet
>make an AK-47 cost 5 points as a power? If you were fabulously wealthy, you cou
>could just buy an AK-47, hell, buy ten. I think that the cp for being rich are
>incongrous with the aforemntioned AK-47 price. Or vice versa. Can someone put
>forth a clear answer on which price to use and how to adapt the other one?
>
>	HERO is riddled with problems, but is the best I have seen so far...

The first, and one would think the most obvious, solution to this problem
lies in reading the rules.

HERO bases itself upon two general premises, as far as I can tell:

	*	The secret to modeling fantastic things lies in describing 
		what they accomplish, not how they accomplish it.

		Thus, HERO makes the distinction between power and 
		special effect.  In this case, the special effect would
		describe how the character became wealthy and so forth.
		The function of the effect, however, makes the 
		character wealthy -- so that's all the detail you get.

	*	It seems to me that there are two general sorts of 
		roleplaying experience:

		- one with "normal people" characters in an 
		not so normal environment (for example
		the kinds of games modeled by AD&D, CoC, RuneQuest, 
		and so forth)

		- one with "heroic" characters figures drawn large 
		and bold as if they represented famous characters of
		fiction.

		HERO makes this distinction through its HEROIC and 
		SUPERHEROIC designations. The difference means much
		more than the simply opposition of fantasy vs. comic book.
		In HERO, you construct HEROIC characters in a different 
		manner from the SUPERHEROIC character (I won't go into all
		the differences here).

It plainly applies to your complaint in the following way.  

HEROIC characters make their way in the world as normal folks do.  Thus, they 
may buy things with money; and lose them as well, if someone makes off
with them.  Thus, a HEROIC character buys "obscenely wealthy" for 
20 points (as in your example), and then goes out and buys all the guns
he or she wants with their obscenely wealthy money.  No problem.

The SUPERHEROIC character faces a different story.  Because SuperHeros like
Batman, Superman, Virgil, Odysseus and so forth really represent archtypes or
two-D sketches, the possessions they carry form an essential part of their
nature, indicating more than mere belongings.  How would Batman swing without 
his batarangs?  Would Lois love Superman without his invulnerable hair?  To 
enforce this genre convention, the HERO rules demand that SUPERHEROIC
character pay for all their "possessions" with character points.  Thus
anything that fits into their "pencil sketch" must be bought with 
points.  Batman has to pay for his batarangs, and Superman has to pay
for the invulnerable hair.

Notice though, that all the Armani suits that Batman buys as Bruce 
Wayne are not bought as 

(7)	+ 30 PREsence, OIF suit, only until suit takes BODY, only
	versus women and fashion mavens.

although they certainly could be.

Heck no.  Wayne can assume that he has all the trappings of a 
multi-millionaire playboy subsumed by the 20 points of "obscenely wealthy" 
he bought.  Now, if Wayne wanted any sort of mechanics benefit out of his 
Armani suits, other than the odd +1 to a seduction roll for suitable 
attire (no pun intended), he had better damn well pay the seven points.

I think you might find that a lot of the problems you think you have with
HERO are easily dealt with or explained away by someone who knows the
system.  It seems to me that the great problem with both HERO and GURPS
lies in their expanse of material.  The best way to learn either game
remains learning it from someone who already knows it, or by reading
the rules thoroughly and playing thorugh a great deal of trial and 
error with your favourite gaming group.  I urge you to fully fieldtest
HERO.  You will find that it has more going for it than most games on
the market today.




-- 
Viktor Haag					viktor@mks.com
Mortice Kern Systems				(519) 884-2251
35 King North, Waterloo, Ontario		ext. 16
(aspiring HERO guru)