The Hero Instant is a table-top role-playing game (RPG) about being heroes. It is a game in which one person is the Game-Master (GM), one or more other Players each have super-hero characters. Between the Game Master and the Players, you imagine a make-believe world about the adventures and the heroic things those super-hero characters do, all while you sit comfortably around a table.
You might need to roll some dice from time to time, make notes on your character sheets, or move your Heroes around a ‘map’, which might be as simple as a sketch on the back of a blank piece of paper, or a few index cards placed on the table to represent the different locations in the scene. All of these physical elements of the game are all in service to the scene that players and Game Master are imagining: anything that helps everyone imagine the scene as described.
In an RPG game session, the Game-Master describes the setting and explains the situations that the heroes find themselves in, and the players take turns describing what they do about these situations. The heroes might be solving a mystery, preventing a bank-robbery, rescuing people from a tornado, or even just helping old ladies get their cats out of trees. Usually, the heroes will be cooperating, and the Game-Master will be adding complications to make the adventure interesting and challenging. As they play, the story unfolds as a product of the group’s imagination.
If you enjoy super-hero comics, the recent slate of block-buster super-hero movies or the various super-hero television shows, then you have the perfect imagination to enjoy The Hero Instant.
As you play, there will be dice rolls and other simple game rules to give you an idea of what the characters can do, and to otherwise organize the make-believe into a game. A game might be as short as a few hours long, or it could be a ‘campaign’ that lasts multiple sessions and keeps the group happily gaming for years.
What You Need to Play
- This website! Specifically,…
- Character Sheets that keep track of how your character is different from someone else’s.
- Character-Creation rules to lead you through the process of creating your character.
- Power Sets that describe the detailed effects of the different super powers you might have.
- A Time-Tracking sheets to print that help the GM keep track of the player’s turns.
- Rules for how to play the game,
- And for the GM, A starting adventure, more adventure ideas, villain ideas, and other useful things.
- Some blank paper and an erasable writing implement,
- A handful of 10-sided dice (available at your local game or hobby shop) or an app that simulates multiple 10-sided dice rolls
- Some friends,
- A comfortable table to sit around,
- A lazy afternoon or evening,
- Maybe some snacks and/or beverages.
Each of the following pages goes into more details about the rules. Don’t worry: it’s a very simple system that you can pick up and master in no time at all!