Champions

[Eosin the Red]

First Champions character? I suggest the KISS approach. Play a fairly strait foward flying brick - easy build and you get to learn how combat move and flows.

Champions is very simple if you will spend the time to understand your options. Some people knock it, but the first character out of the gate they tried to build Magneto - that is like trying to learn D&D playing Elminster. Having said that, it is a bit more front loaded on the learning than d20.

Like on other boards where they slam d20 - some have to slam Champions every time they see the topic. D&D and d20 are good at what they do, so is Champions. That does not mean there is not room for improvement....

 

[Kenpo Wolf]

My super games of choice, before M&M, was Classic Marvel and Gurps Supers. I have never played a game of Champions but I have at least a dozen supplements which I have used as sources for these games. I suggest that you take one of sample characters out the book, tweak it as you see fit, change the character's name and then have your friend run you through a few practice combats. If you are still interested after a few games, try to get your own material off Amazon or Ebay

 

[Sanackranib]

champoins

I was in a champoins game using the ninja hero rules and normal human maximums (75 point characters I think - its been about 10 years) I have to say it took a while to roll up the characters but it was fun to play. I have considered it again since 3e came out but havent done anything about it.

does anybody know if the ogre from the front of the champoins HC book is available anywhare ( the dude withe the Mohawk in black and white stripes) that was a cool looking mini

 

[ced1106]

A friend of mine has invited me to play in his Champions game. They use the Hero system and I was wondering if anyone here knew of a program like E-Tools or a website like the SRD so that I could find information about it. My friend is going to loan me his book so I can check it out next week while I am at work. The game starts in Feb and I need time to learn the system and create me a character.

Bad GM! No biscuit!

What your friend really should do is **help** you design a character. Tell him your superhero concepts, and have him design the character, or at least something for you to start with. The gaming group itself should help you with the mechanics. You should be able to say "I punchiminnaface!" and let them translate this to the rpg mechanics.

Have fun!


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Datt]

Well I just found out that we are not playing Super Heroes. We are playing ordinary humans. The GM has 4 set types that we wants us to play and I am going to be a Military Cryptographer. There are no super powers, no magic, and no futuristic technology. It is going to be based in the year 2003. So now I have to come up with an average human Military Cryptographer. My brother is in the Army so I wonder if he would have any good ideas....

 

[Cedric]

The math does not bother me but I heard it takes two hours to run a combat. Is that true?

It can..but think about this way. In Champions you are playing "Super-Heroes" usually...so you can think about this kind of like a comic book.

In a typical comic book, a single combat may consume over 3/4's of the pages of the comic book.

In Champions, combat is a huge part of the fun. Yes it's a roleplaying game, but much more so then most fantasy games, combat is an extension of that roleplaying experience.

Cedric

 

[Galfridus]

With the advent of 3E, I've found that Champions (actually "Hero System", to be proper) and D&D combats take about the same amount of time to run.

As an example, I ran a Fantasy Hero adventure at GenCon, using several optional rules which tend to slow down combat (hit location, impairing/disabling wounds, encumbrance being the chief ones). In a 4 hour session, I had two major combat scenes and three major roleplaying scenes (along with some more minor scenes mixed in). The combats didn't seem to go any slower or faster than those in my 3E campaign.

Hero System is my system of choice. The /character creation/ is more complex, but once you have a character, the gameplay is no worse than 3E.

 

[nHammer]

Well I just found out that we are not playing Super Heroes. We are playing ordinary humans. The GM has 4 set types that we wants us to play and I am going to be a Military Cryptographer. There are no super powers, no magic, and no futuristic technology. It is going to be based in the year 2003. So now I have to come up with an average human Military Cryptographer. My brother is in the Army so I wonder if he would have any good ideas....

It'll be easy for you to make a normal character...don't worry about it. Hell, while I'm sitting here typing this, I've already made most of the character in my head.

Hope you enjoy the game..(and the system)

 

[Shard O'Glase]

As for comparisons - I've never seen Mutants and Masterminds. I've barely glanced over other superhero systems since the first few I saw proved nowhere near as cool as Champions/Hero System (the last edition of MEGS DC Heroes was Hero's closest rival, to me, in terms of pure system coolness). Hero Games, though, is having a friendly rivalry with Guardians of Order over whose iconic characters are cooler, those of Champions 5th Edition or those of Silver Age Sentinels. They're both writing story fragments, with the classic "superhero groups meet and mistakenly fight" theme, at Superhero Showdown, and letting their fans decide who comes out on top. There's been some friendly boasting on each others' message boards, as well. As one observer put it, "If we ever doubted these guys were gamers as well as game designers... "

Anyway, hope that helps!

If Foxbat is considered one of the Hero iconics for this contest, my money is on Hero. Foxbat rules.

 

[Mercule]

The math does not bother me but I heard it takes two hours to run a combat. Is that true?

Eh, it depends. I've been in a 5 hour supers battle, but it was a running fight of the sort that span multiple comic-book issues, so it was right on for feel.

I've also seen Fantasy Hero combats that were over in less time than a similar 3E combat would take. It all depends on what options you're using and how familiar everyone is with the system.

Hero is one of my favorite systems. It's the one I use if I don't have a genre-specific system I prefer for a given game.