(23/41: 1993) STEVEN S. LONG (1965–)
The Lawyer’s Brief
Steven S. Long graduated from Duke University School of Law, practiced as a trial litigator in Greensboro, North Carolina, and one day decided he’d rather write game books for a living.
In 1997, he quit the law. He never went back.
What followed was one of the most sustained individual outputs in tabletop RPG history: approximately 220 books across three decades, the majority written or edited as primary designer, line developer, and co-owner of Hero Games during the system’s most productive era. Many of those books involved co-authors—a fact Long is careful to acknowledge—but the editorial vision, the systematic architecture, and the sheer accumulation of rigorously documented pages belong primarily to him.
The HERO System didn’t start with Long. It started with George MacDonald and Steve Peterson’s Champions in 1981—point-buy character creation, effects-based power construction, character Disadvantages as a resource mechanic. Rob Bell’s 4th Edition (1989), written with help from the original creators and shaped by extensive fan playtesting, unified it into a genre-agnostic engine. Long inherited both achievements. What he did with the inheritance was write the most complete, most thoroughly documented, and most genre-comprehensive expression of that design philosophy that any single designer has ever produced.
He’s the third architect of a system built by other people. And he may have built the most rooms.
The Third Architect
The HERO System lineage runs clean.
MacDonald and Peterson created the foundational concepts in 1981: effects-based power design, where every ability is built from identical mechanical building blocks regardless of special effects. Point-buy character creation. The Advantages/Limitations framework. And character Disadvantages as a resource mechanic—an innovation that Stu Horvath’s Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground (2023) identifies as heralding the Second Generation of RPG design. Steve Jackson explicitly credited Champions for shaping GURPS.
Rob Bell took this superhero engine and stripped it for parts. His 4th Edition (1989), developed with the original creators and extensive playtester input, genericized Champions into the HERO System proper—a universal toolkit no longer tethered to capes and cowls. Aaron Allston contributed important supplements in this era—Strike Force and Ninja Hero demonstrated the engine could serve genres beyond superheroes—but the core rulebook was Bell’s work, not Allston’s.
Long arrived third. He started as a freelancer writing within the 4th Edition framework—Dark Champions (1993), The Ultimate Martial Artist (1994), The Ultimate Mentalist (1996). Good supplements. Clear evidence of a mind that approached game design with a litigator’s attention to precedent and precision.
Then he bought the company.
The Decade of One
In December 2001, DOJ, Inc. acquired Hero Games, purchasing all rights. Long and Darren Watts were the company’s two public faces, but DOJ had additional partners—including Jason Walters, who currently does the vast majority of the work keeping the company going, and others who prefer to remain anonymous.
Long became primary system designer, line developer, and lead author for the entire HERO System product line. What followed was extraordinary. From 2001 to 2011, Hero Games published roughly 110 products. Long was the primary force behind virtually all of them. The 5th Edition core book. The 5th Edition Revised, expanded from 374 to 592 pages. The 6th Edition across two volumes. Genre sourcebooks: Fantasy Hero, Star Hero (co-authored with James Cambias, who handled the astronomy), Dark Champions, Pulp Hero, Ninja Hero (co-authored with Michael Surbrook, whose anime expertise was essential), Post-Apocalyptic Hero. The “Ultimate” series—many of which had co-authors who were originally assigned the projects in the late 4th Edition era. Long edited them all, added significant material to each, but is careful not to claim sole credit where it isn’t due.
Largely one man. One system. A decade.
The legal training showed in every page. Long’s prose is functional rather than atmospheric—procedural text, not fiction. His books read less like games and more like legal codes: exhaustively categorized, internally cross-referenced, designed to eliminate ambiguity. Some in the community nicknamed the result “Calculus: the RPG”—a characterization Long disputes. He never took calculus, he notes, and anyone who thinks the system requires it doesn’t know it well. But he understands the criticism exists.
What He Actually Changed
Long designed both the 5th Edition (2002) and 6th Edition (2009) of the HERO System. The innovations were real, if specific.
The 5th Edition completed the genre-stripping that the 4th Edition had begun. For the first time, the HERO core book contained zero setting material, no sample adventures, and minimal genre-specific content. Long separated the engine from the vehicle entirely. GURPS had done this earlier (1986), so the concept wasn’t new, but Long executed it with characteristic thoroughness—including over 300 worked example powers across multiple genres, widely praised as essential for understanding the abstract effects-based system.
The 6th Edition was his most decisive structural intervention. In all prior editions, secondary stats derived mathematically from primary stats. DEX determined OCV, DCV, and influenced SPD—creating the notorious “DEX Überstat” problem where every combat-oriented character was compelled to buy high Dexterity regardless of concept. Long decoupled all figured characteristics, making each attribute independent with fixed base values.
This was genuinely novel within the HERO lineage. No previous edition had attempted it. It fixed a mathematical distortion that had persisted for twenty-eight years.
He also eliminated the Elemental Control power framework—widely considered exploitable, providing 75–100 free points for drawbacks worth 5–10. He replaced it with the Unified Power Limitation. He reformed the Killing Attack stun multiplier from a variable roll to a flat half-die. He removed the Comeliness characteristic. He converted all measurements from hexes to meters. Each fixed a documented problem. None was a new paradigm. Long’s mechanical innovations are deep architectural refinement—the litigator identifying flaws in the code and drafting precise amendments.
The Genre Sourcebook Program
Long’s strongest original creative contribution may not be any single mechanical innovation but the genre sourcebook program itself.
Fantasy Hero (5th Edition, 2003) introduced twelve different magic systems as toolkit components—not a default system with options, but twelve fully independent mechanical approaches. It won the Gold ENnie for Best Non-d20 Supplement in 2004. Multiple reviewers noted the genre research alone made it valuable independent of the game system.
This was Long’s signature move, repeated across every genre: the sourcebook as both mechanical bridge and reference encyclopedia. Star Hero (co-authored with James Cambias) provided comprehensive science-fiction worldbuilding tools. Dark Champions defined the “dark modern-day action-adventure” subgenre. The thesis these books collectively proved: one effects-based system could serve every genre with equal rigor, documented by a primary author who treated each genre with the research depth of a legal brief.
The books outlived the system’s commercial peak. The genre research remains useful to GMs running entirely different games.
The Licensed Properties
Before he became the HERO System’s architect, Long proved his cross-system versatility through major licensed work.
At Last Unicorn Games, he co-designed the Star Trek: The Next Generation RPG (1998) using the Icon System—a collaboration with Christian Moore, Ross Isaacs, Kenneth Hite, and Owen Seyler. It won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game. He served as DS9 RPG Line Developer and co-designed the Original Series core book.
At Decipher, he was primary author of The Lord of the Rings RPG (2002) using the CODA System. He re-read Tolkien’s entire corpus twice, producing 40,000 words of research notes for a 150,000-word core book. It won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game.
At Wizards of the Coast, he co-designed The Wheel of Time RPG (2001) with Charles Ryan and Owen K.C. Stephens, adapting Robert Jordan’s world to the d20 System. Ryan likely did the most design work—the magic system rules were his. Long contributed to White Wolf’s World of Darkness and Aberrant products and wrote for Pinnacle’s Deadlands line.
The cross-system experience matters. Before he touched the HERO core rules, Long had designed for the Icon System, CODA System, d20 System, and Storyteller System. When he redesigned HERO from the ground up, he brought that comparative knowledge with him.
The Counter-Programmer
Long launched HERO 5th Edition in April 2002, during the peak of the d20 System boom. He counter-programmed deliberately: releasing a complex, non-d20 system when simplicity and d20 compatibility were the market’s demands. He positioned HERO as the refuge for gamers seeking depth, flexibility, and mathematical rigor. The strategy worked for a while. The 5th Edition was critically well received. HERO experienced its last significant period of growth.
By 2009, the market had shifted irreversibly. The indie RPG movement was ascendant. The hobby was moving toward accessibility and narrative. Long doubled down on comprehensive systematic design. Long’s career arc tracks the trajectory of crunchy universal RPGs themselves. He was the last major designer to bet his entire career on the proposition that more rules and more systematic rigor would produce a better RPG experience. He put it plainly in a 2015 interview: “I think HERO is hands-down the best RPG ever designed and that everything else is a distant second.”
The Scoring Case
Invention (5):
“Notable contribution.” The figured-characteristic decoupling was genuinely novel within the HERO lineage and fixed a real mathematical distortion. The Elemental Control elimination addressed a known exploit. Fantasy Hero’s twelve magic systems were an original contribution. Dark Champions defined a new subgenre. But the foundational concepts—point-buy, effects-based design, Advantages/Limitations—belong to MacDonald and Peterson (1981). The universal engine belongs to Bell and the 4th Edition team (1989). Genre-stripping was pioneered by GURPS (1986). No designers publicly credit Long personally as a mechanical influence, distinct from crediting Champions/HERO generally. Notable contribution, not new direction.
Architecture (7):
“Built to last, built for itself.” The HERO System under Long achieves exceptional internal consistency—every ability uses identical building blocks, the 6th Edition eliminated mathematical interdependencies, and the system supports decades of campaign play. RPG.net substance score: 4.30/5 across 27 reviews. Third-party publishers built within the ecosystem. But Long’s specific innovations haven’t propagated outside HERO. Excellent architecture. Propagation limited to its own community.
Mastery (7):
“Recognized master.” Approximately 220 books. Roughly 110 products in a single decade as primary architect, many with co-authors whose contributions Long is careful to acknowledge. Full-time designer since 1997. Clear craft evolution from supplement author to multi-system freelancer to system architect. Cross-system experience across five RPG engines. Persistent usability concerns and post-2011 output decline prevent the exceptional label.
Adjustments (+4):
- ■ Longevity 20+ years: +2 (Published designs from 1993 through at least 2015, spanning 22+ years)
- ■ Full-time career: +1 (Quit practicing law in 1997. Game design as sole profession for 28 years.)
- ■ Awards: +1 (Origins Awards 1998 and 2002; Gold ENnie 2004)
- ■ Branded name: No. Non-gamers don’t recognize Steven S. Long or the HERO System.
- ■ Cross-genre success: No. Output is almost entirely tabletop RPGs.
- ■ Commercial success: No. No specific sales figures found.
- ■ Design propagation: No. No designers cite Long personally as a mechanical influence, distinct from crediting Champions/HERO generally.
The Hidden Pattern
Long’s career reveals something about the relationship between completeness and invention.
He did not create the HERO System’s foundational language. MacDonald and Peterson wrote the grammar. Bell stripped it for universal use. What Long did was write the dictionary—every word, every definition, every cross-reference, every example sentence, across every genre and context the language could serve.
That dictionary is the most exhaustive primary-author contribution to any universal RPG system in the hobby’s history. The volume is staggering. The internal consistency is rigorous. The genre coverage is encyclopedic. And it was produced largely by one man, working from a house in Greensboro, North Carolina, with a cat named Osiris and a collection of antique maps—supported by co-authors whose work he is careful to credit, and business partners whose contributions he is careful to honor.
The market moved toward simpler, more narrative systems. Long stayed where he was. He bet everything on the proposition that comprehensiveness was a virtue. The community that agrees with him considers the HERO System the finest RPG ever designed.
He may be right. The hobby chose differently.
What Remains
Two Origins Awards. A Gold ENnie. Approximately 220 books. Two complete editions of a universal RPG system. Twelve magic systems in a single genre sourcebook. A figured-characteristic decoupling that fixed a twenty-eight-year mathematical distortion. A community that still runs decades-long campaigns using his rules. And the quiet legacy of a lawyer who quit practicing law to practice something he believed was more important.
The dictionary is complete. The language was someone else’s.
Total: 23 points. Year: 1993.
Total: 23 points. Year: 1993.
The dictionary is complete. The language was someone else’s.