Okay, so yesterday I stopped early on page 27 because I wanted to talk about the character examples a bit more. So, let's see how the designers walked players through creating what would some of the most iconic Champions characters of all time. Going back to the first pages of the book, there are three ways to come up with a character conception: Abilities, Name, and Costume. And like a good game design company, they give us examples of all three.
The first example is a player deciding he wants to play a Batman-type with martial arts and skills. So, he picks several appropriate skills (Acrobatics, Detective Work, Gliding, Martial Arts, and Stealth) before buying characteristics. He takes strong physical characteristics (20 STR, 25 DEX, 20 CON), as well as a high INT (20). Since this will be a melee character, he wants to bump up his defenses, so he pumps 10 points into PD (total of 14) and 6 more into ED (total of 10). And since martial artists are known to be fast, he jacks up the SPD score to a full 6. Since END gets burned so quickly in combat in this first edition, he also boosts his REC score to 12. Not a bad start.
Since Martial Arts costs as many points as your STR score, he goes back and adds that cost to his total. Now he's got a total cost of 200 points, including 150 in characteristics and 50 in skills. No powers, though, although Gliding would become a power in later editions. Since he's got 100 base points, he needs 100 points in Disadvantages to make up the difference, so he gives him a Secret ID (15), a 30-point Hunted, the criminal organization known as VIPER, a 20-point Code vs. Killing, another 20-point Hunted in the CIA, and another Psych Lim worth 15 points, a hatred of Killing Attacks. And then we get a casual mention that the character's name is Crusader.
For long-time Champions fans, that name will be very, very familiar; he was always the first sample character up until the 4th edition. And they'll also note something is missing: Crusader's shield. That's right, in this original version there is no Missile Deflecting shield. He's got the little gliding wings under his arms, but no shield. That caught me off-guard when I read it. Even the art on the sample character sheet shows him with no shield.
Speaking of which, the next page is mostly taken up with a hand-written character sheet showing exactly how everything is laid out. And the Champions character sheet is a thing of beauty; everything you need is there. Formulas for figured characteristics, combat maneuvers, space for the powers, skills and disadvantages, space to put your various characteristics rolls and your movement, and even space for your combat stats and your XPs earned. All that, and a quarter of the page is taken up with space to draw the character. They absolutely nailed the character sheet, and the basic structure of the sheet didn't change for several editions. It didn't need to.
So, Crusader comes off as a slightly underpowered Batman clone; no utility belt or other gadgets, but he's a tough fighter who can solve crimes with his brains as well as his fists. He's a classic character for a reason.
The next sample character is based off a name: Ogre. Yes, that Ogre. Crusader lasted into the 4th edition but I don't recall seeing him after that. Ogre, however, has been a staple of the game from 1981 to today. Everyone needs a big, dumb brick to punch out (or get punched by). And Ogre fills that category beautifully. And even here, he's one tough bugger, with a massive 60 STR (giving him a 12D6 punch) and 30 CON (giving him lots of END to burn). He's dumb and ugly (5 INT, 6 COM), but he's a menacing presence (20 PRE). He also picks up a few powers: Damage resistance (10 pts), Superleap, and Reduced Endurance on his STR.
I forgot to mention this: Power Advantages and Limitations can be applied to characteristics; just use the value of the characteristic to calculate the additional cost or savings. So, a 60 STR with 1/2 END cost would mean the advantage costs 15 points, even though you paid 50 points for the additional STR; you go by the value of the characteristic.
Alright, back to everyone's favorite brick. Ogre gets some Disads to pay for these points; he's at 197, so he'll need at least 97 Disad points to make up the difference. He gets a Psych Lim (hatred of people who remind him how stupid he is) for 15 points, another Psych Lim (fear of heroes with Ego powers) for 5 points, a 10-pt. Vulnerability, taking 2x STUN from Ego Attacks, a 30-pt. Hunted (the FBI), a 10-pt. Susceptibility to being affected by Ego powers, and a 20-pt. Hunted named Mechanon, who is another classic Champions villain who we'll get to later. That's a full 100 points, so he's got 3 points to play with. Ogre gets a +1 Enhanced Sight to improve his PER roll (since PER is based on INT, which means his PER is bad at 10 or less before this additional power). And there it is. The GM gives him a background to fit the disadvantages (he was a normal guy that Mechanon experimented on, and now he's dumb and extremely strong). And there we have it, our first Champions villain is ready to go.
The third method of character conception is a costume. The player comes up with a cape and a star on the hero's chest, and thus we are introduced to Starburst. Stealthy this guy is not. Since his powers define the character, we start with those. And we are introduced to the Multipower, as Starburst's powers are defined as sharing a pool of 40 points. He's got an Energy Blast, a Force Field, and Flight, which he can use up to a total of 40 points split between all three. So, he could have 5" of Flight, a 5 PD/5 ED Force Field, and a 4D6 EB running at the same time. Or, he could put them all into his Energy Blast, or drop the EB and use 10" of Flight and 10 PD/10 ED of Force Field. Multipowers give a character plenty of flexibility, within limits.
So, his characteristics are going to be important, particularly his DEX, CON, and END. SPD also helps. So, with 20 in DEX and CON, and additional points to boost his END to 50, Starburst has a total of 180 points spent. This requires some Disads, and we get a 10-pt. Psych Lim (unsure of himself, may hesitate in emergencies), a Secret ID, a DNPC (15 points, a lab assistant who gets involved on occasion), a 20-pt. Vulnerability to hand-to-hand Killing Attacks, and a Hunted worth 20 points (another villain, Pulsar, who will be introduced at the end). All total, he's got 80 points in Disads, so this is another balanced character.
People who know Champions from the 5th and 6th editions might have their minds blown by how small those point totals are; two 200-point characters and a 180. 5th edition used 350 as the base; 6th edition bumped it to 450. But there just wasn't as much stuff to buy in the earlier editions as there is now. A lot fewer skills, no Talents or Perks, and the powers weren't as complex as they are. So, characters didn't need to be loaded up with points to be effective.
Now, I get the whole 'point bloat' thing; I love creating powerful, Justice League-level characters myself. But there's a reason the X-Men were the most popular comic of the 1980s, and it wasn't because they were the most powerful team around. Same with the Teen Titans, who were very popular when this game was released. These were lower-powered heroes, sidekicks of the big guns, and much more relatable, if I can use that term. They were tough, but not invulnerable. They were powerful, but not demigods. They had weaknesses that made their heroics all the more impressive.
The end of the page discusses how to simulate powers that aren't listed in this edition, such as running up the side of a building or shapeshifting into different animals. The latter would become a full-blown power later (Multiform), and running up the building is simulated by buying Flight with the Limited Power that it only works when you are touching a solid surface (a +1/2 Limitation).
So, that covers all the character creation stuff, and we're just getting to page 30. Before I move on to Combat, I'm going to create a couple of sample characters using the rules we've seen: One hero, and one villain. But that will have to wait until next time.
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