The first edition published in 1985, also includes two short sample adventures, as well as rules for converting other role-playing games to Fantasy Hero.

The first is a solo boar hunt, the second involves a local inn, and in the third, the player characters must choose to help one of two warring wizards.

[3] About this time, Hero Games ran into financial difficulties and was taken over, becoming a subsidiary of Iron Crown Enterprises (I.C.E.).

Phil Masters reviewed the original edition of Fantasy Hero for White Dwarf #76, giving it an overall rating of 9 out of 10, but warned that "This is not a game for the lazy.

The rules are very clearly written and attractively presented, and the game offers wonderful opportunities for referees who are prepared either to develop their own background material or to spend a little time customising adventures intended for other systems.

I recommend it to anyone who plays other games from Hero as a primer on how to introduce magic to those systems, as well as various mythological creatures.

Swan also didn't like that a campaign world or setting had not been included, calling the generic result "pretty dull."