I am not familiar with the HERO system, aside from it being created by Iron Crown.
That statement is self-proving.
ICE had nothing to do with the creation of the
HERO system.
The 1st edition of
Champions, the Super Roleplaying Game was published in 1981 by
Hero Games.
In 1981, George MacDonald and Steve Peterson, from San Mateo, California, printed 1000 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.
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 universal role-playing system:
Danger International,
Justice, Inc.,
Fantasy Hero and and others. The games were very compatible, but each differed slightly, using new rules or costs.
Hero Games used the term
Hero System to describe them all.
By 1983
Espionage (1970s/80s international spies) had been added, followed by
Justice, Inc (1930s genre movies style) in 1984.
In 1984
Champions was incorporated into a generic role-playing game system called the
Hero System.
Fantasy HERO followed in 1985*, as did
Danger International (
Esp. expanded to include mercenaries, etc).
In 1986 ICE signed a publication contract to take over Hero Games' production and distribution**. Later, with
Hero Games staff leaving for other jobs,
ICE took over the creative reins of Hero's products.
* The first playtest edition of
Fantasy Hero appeared before
Champions was published, but was not published immediately.
** This was the first involvement of
ICE with
Hero Games or the
HERO System.
