Champions (role-playing game)

Champions is a role-playing game published by Hero Games designed to simulate a stereotypical superhero comic book world. It was originally created by George MacDonald and Steve Peterson in collaboration with Rob Bell, Bruce Harlick and Ray Greer.
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 "" 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. The stats in "Champions" are Strength, Constitution, Body, Dexterity, Intelligence, Ego, and Presence.
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 a player's 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.
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".
Character archetypes and designs.
Archetypes.
While "Champions" does not use "character classes" as some RPGs do, it does define common superhero archetypes as found in comic books. These are based variably on how they use their powers in combat, motivation, or the powers' origin. As listed in the "Champions" genre book, they are:
It is possible for a character to fall into multiple categories, such as Superman (brick/energy projector/speedster/Patriot), Batman (martial artist/gadgeteer), or Spider-Man (martial artist/speedster/gadgeteer). It is also common for characters not to fall into any easily defined category—these categories are simply to provide easy definition and really have no impact on normative game play and do not imply stricture nor benefit within the rules.
The Champions Team.
The Champions superhero team is presented as an example of how to build a well-balanced team in terms of game mechanics, including the hero Flare. Their enemies include Foxbat and Doctor Destroyer.
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 role-playing game based on the license was announced by Cryptic Studios, who had developed the popular "City of Heroes" and then reinvented Marvel Universe Online to "Marvel Heroes". The game was released in September 2009. The game takes place in the established "Champions" universe and features classic "Champions" heroes and villains as NPCs.
Reception.
In the January 1982 edition of "Ares" (Issue 12), Eric Goldberg noted the "sketchy" design of the first edition, and yet believed that "in many ways, it is sufficient... What enables the designers to get away with this minimalist approach is an unswerving devotion to the philosophy and to the spirit of the superhero comic, which itself has never pretended to be terribly complex."
In the April–May 1982 edition of "White Dwarf" (Issue 30), Dave Morris liked the first edition combat system, calling it "a good simulation of comic-book battles". But Morris questioned whether players would enjoy playing superheroes rather than more ordinary characters found in most other role-playing games. He gave the game an average rating of 7 out of 10, saying, "All the same, the occasional bout of world-saving might be enjoyable, and "Champions" is worth buying on this basis alone."
Reviews for two editions of the game appeared in "Dragon":
Reviews for various editions of the game appeared in "The Space Gamer": 
Ken Cliffe reviewed the 4th edition of "Champions" for "White Wolf" #20, rating it 3 out of 5 overall, and stated that "I recommend this book to anyone already familiar with the hero system, and suggest the Champions game to anyone who enjoys exact, complicated role-playing. To those looking for slick, fun role-playing, I say look to other SHRPGs and other game systems."
In a 1996 reader poll taken by "Arcane" magazine to determine the 50 most popular roleplaying games of all time, "Champions" was ranked 27th. Editor Paul Pettengale commented: "It wasn't the first superhero RPG and it never had licensed links to any big-name comics - but it's still the classic of the genre. It popularised the now-commonplace 'points-design' approach to character creation; in fact, it's probably the most flexible, detailed points-based system ever, which makes it rather overwhelming for some new players, and combat can be a little slow. But once you've learned how to use it, no other game catches the feeling of superhero action in quite the same way."
"Champions" was included in the 2007 book "". 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."