I'm considering introducing a Hero Points into my game... what do people think is the best (or their favorite) Hero Point system? (And if you have the time... why?)
(While I understand this is under the Pathfinder RPG general discussion, I'm certainly happy to hear about 3.x systems as well.)
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The hero point system is fun and actually ends up having players being a little more involved in the game, as they all want to get "cool" hero points for exceptionak deeds or even get praise from their fellow players. The hero point system is also fairly flexible, allowing your players to do anything that would be considered reasonable by spending a hero point or even those rare times, when a pc is about to die and spend all his hero points to not die.
We've been using the standard Hero Points system for a while now, and I have only good things to say about it. It gives a sense of greater agency to the players and allows them to counteract those awful moments when the dice fall heavily against you.
I can't speak for other systems, but this some might feel like the HP system makes the game less gritty - the cheat death ability in particular changes the way PCs act. But for my party, that has now been together for over two years, a death to a random crit would feel decidedly unsatisfying.
The best part is that it encourages players to do awesome things, and because in our group any player can suggest awarding HP, it helps with the sense of a collaboration.
Kirthfinder has a great Hero Point system. I use it in my games.
SpyCraft and FantasyCraft have, in my experience, the bar-none best system for Hero/Action Points out there.
They're called Action Dice.
You get a certain number and Type of Action Dice at the start of each Session, based on your Level
The DM also gains the same type of Action Dice, and a number of them based on the number of Players at the table and their APL.
Thanks to everyone so far - great stuff.