Publisher(s) Hero Games Language(s) English | Genre(s) Superhero fiction System(s) Hero System | |
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Designer(s) Steve Peterson
George MacDonald
Bruce Harlick
Ray Greer Publication date 1981 (1st edition)
1982 (2nd edition)
1984 (3rd edition)
1989 (4th edition)
2002 (5th edition)
2010 (6th edition) | ||
Champions is a role-playing game published by Hero Games designed to simulate and function in a four-color superhero comic book world. It was originally created by George MacDonald and Steve Peterson in collaboration with Rob Bell, Bruce Harlick and Ray Greer.
Contents
The latest edition of the game uses the sixth edition of the Hero System, as revised by Steve Long, and was written by Aaron Allston. It was released in early 2010.
Description
Champions, first published in 1981, was inspired by Superhero: 2044 and The Fantasy Trip. As one of the first published role-playing games in which character generation was based on a point-buy system instead of random dice rolls. A player decides what kind of character to play, and designs the character using a set number of "character points", often abbreviated as "CP." The limited number of character points generally defines how powerful the character will be. Points can be used in many ways: to increase personal characteristics, such as strength or intelligence; to buy special skills, such as martial arts or computer programming; or to build superpowers, such as supersonic flight or telepathy. This point system was praised by reviewers for the balance it gave character generation over random dice rolls.
Players are required not only to design a hero's powers, but also the hero's skills, disadvantages, and other traits. Thus, Champions characters are built with friends, enemies, and weaknesses, along with powers and abilities with varying scales of character point value for each. This design approach intends to make all the facets of Champions characters balanced in relation to each other regardless of the specific abilities and character features. Characters are rewarded with more character points after each adventure, which are then used to buy more abilities, or eliminate disadvantages.
The system
Players can design custom superpowers using the Champions rules system. Rather than offering a menu of specific powers, Champions powers are defined by their effects. (An energy blast is the same power regardless of whether it represents a laser beam, ice powers, or mystical spells.) The Champions rulebook includes rules governing many different types of generic powers which can then be modified to fit the players idea.
This allows players to simulate situations found in superhero stories. Like most comic book heroes, characters and villains are frequently knocked out of the fight but seldom killed. There are special rules for throwing heavy objects like aircraft carriers.
History and other genres
See also: List of Hero System Products
The Champions system was adapted to a fantasy genre under the title Fantasy Hero (the first playtest edition of Fantasy Hero appeared before Champions was published), with similar advantages and disadvantages to the original Champions game. In 1984, the rules for Champions began being adapted into generic role-playing game system called the Hero System, although no formal and separate generic release of this as a standalone system would occur until 1990; instead the Champions rules would be edited down, expanded, and otherwise adapted on an individual basis for a variety of different genre treatments, such as pulp and modern espionage. Champions now exists as a genre sourcebook for the Hero System. Books for other genres have also appeared over the years, including Star Hero, Dark Champions, Pulp Hero, and Ninja Hero.
Setting
Much of the game is set in Millennium City. After its destruction by Dr Destroyer, Detroit was rebuilt using the newest technologies and renamed.
Hero Comics
Starting in June 1986, a comic mini-series was published by Eclipse Comics based on characters from the first Champions campaign. After the initial mini-series a regular series was published by Hero Comics (later Hero Graphics, later still Heroic Publishing). Like the Villains and Vigilantes comic mini-series, the early issues printed character sheets which allowed readers to incorporate characters used in the comic books in their own Champions campaigns. Heroic Publishing still prints comics about some of the characters in 2007, although they have long since parted ways with the makers of the game.
MMORPG
A massively multiplayer online roleplaying game based on the license was announced by Cryptic Studios, who had developed the popular City of Heroes and the reinvented Marvel Universe Online to Marvel Heroes. The game was released in September 2009. The game takes place in the established Champions universe and feature classic Champions heroes and villains as NPCs.
Reception
Game designer Bill Bridges described Champions as "the superhero roleplaying game. While it wasn't the first game on the market that let you play superheroes and duke it out with supervillains, using earth-shattering powers, it was the most innovative. The major roleplaying games of the time involved characters stalking monsters in dungeons; the heroes in Champions delivered knockout blows to archnemeses — all while speaking the requisite inspiring soliloquies."
The Champions product line has won awards for the following adventure books: