I recently finished a series of posts on reading through the 1st edition of the Champions game. Unlike my Traveller series, I've played Champions before, and I own quite a few products including a complete set of the 4th edition Champions books. I am missing some of the other genre books for the edition, but when it comes to the superheroes, I've got the lot.
Champions is currently on its sixth edition, and I...well, I'm not a fan of the 6th edition. It changed a lot of stuff that had remained unchanged since the first edition. Characteristics were changed; Comeliness was taken right out, and the Figured Characteristics are no longer linked to the Primary ones. The base character is built on about 400 points, the game's premier villain, Doctor Destroyer, is built on 3,200 points, and the core rules are split into two books. One of them, about five hundred or so pages, is strictly on character creation. That's all that's in there. Five hundred pages to create a character. Even 3rd edition D&D did the same thing in less than 100 pages. The second core book is all about how to actually play the game.
Now, I liked 5th edition when it came out; there was a lot of detail in the core book, but again, it was massive and took up hundreds of pages just to create a character. I find the 5th edition to be extremely wordy, too. Explanations take a lot of space on the page even for simple things. And 5th edition made some questionable changes as well, removing some of the game's simpler powers and overcomplicating them in replacing them.
For example, way back in the 1st edition was the power 'Instant Change'. You can figure out what that power does pretty easily, right? It's Billy Batson shouting 'Shazam!' or Clark Kent ducking in and out of a phone booth and emerging a second later as Superman. Simple, easy to understand. And that power was still there in 4th edition, unchanged from first edition: 5 points to change from one set of clothes to your costume and back to the same set; 10 points to change into any set of clothes. Simple, easy to understand. But in 5th, it was dropped and its function taken over by the Transform power. Here's the 5th edition writeup for the 'Instant Change' power:
"This is the classic superhero ability to change clothing into a costume, and vice-versa. It uses the Standard Effect Rule. Because the character merely Transforms his own clothing, no Attack Roll or Effect Roll is necessary, and Instant Change should be considered a Zero-Phase Action. Cosmetic Transform 2d6 (one set of clothing into one costume and vice-versa; method of healing back varies based on character) (10 Active Points); Limited Target (clothes, -½). Total cost: 7 points (or, to Transform a costume into any clothing, add Improved Target Group (+¼) (12 Active Points); total cost 8 points).
That's a lot of words to say 'you instantly change into your superhero costume.' And the entire fifth edition is like that. Incidentally, that paragraph appears in a sidebar on page 152 of the 5th edition rulebook; the character creation section ends on page 224. Did I mention the part where you can find videos online of people shooting bullets at the 5th edition book and not going all the way through? That's right, the 5th edition book is itself the Armor power (with a low Activation roll).
Anyway, that brings me to the 4th edition, which I think is the best edition of the game. It's a one-book RPG, meaning you can buy just a single book and have the complete game handy, ready to play. The D&D equivalent is the Rules Cyclopedia. While I also bought the previous edition's rulebook, I didn't really get into it at first. But when I saw the 4th edition book on the shelves with a blonde ninja going at it with a Doctor Doom-type of villain drawn by none other than George Perez, I knew I was going to be taking a closer look at it. And I loved it.
The 4th edition was a collective ruleset that compiled all the different genres that made up the Hero System. First there was Champions; a couple of years later, Hero Games released Espionage!, which was later redone as Danger International. Justice Inc. and Fantasy Hero soon followed, as did Star Hero and the more esoteric Robot Warriors. All of these used the same basic ruleset; 4th edition finally brought them all together and put out a rulebook that allowed you to play in literally any genre you wanted to, from medieval fantasy to superheroes to the far-flung future. Spies, pulp heroes, mecha warriors, anything you wanted to play could be done through the Hero System.
The other thing that grabbed my attention in the 4th edition Champions was the sample hero team, the Champions. The game did originally have a team of heroes that appeared on the covers and were named in the books, but they were never statted out in any official product except (maybe) the Champions comic book from Eclipse Comics in the 1980s.
But these characters were...different. They weren't generic 'brick, powered armor, energy projector, mystic, martial artist' types. Instead, they were distinct in their personalities, and some of them played against type.
There's Defender, the powered armor rich genius (I know; wait for it) who was born into a heroic lineage and built his armor because he felt it was his duty to follow in his ancestors' footprints. His armor was notable in that it didn't have any blasty weapons, just an Entangle.
Obsidian, the nine-foot-tall alien prince, exiled from his homeworld to Earth for a twenty-year sentence. He's not only the team's brick, he's also one of their scientists, having advanced knowledge from his own culture's advanced scientific achievements, and he has the value of noblesse oblige, the idea that as a ruler, he owes protection to those beneath him.
Jaguar, the Latino detective who bears a family curse that turns him into a savage beast. He acts as a reluctant hero, preferring to use his brains rather than his powers to deal with criminals. He's a pretty laid-back guy when he isn't all fur and claws.
Quantum, the team's energy projector. Her powers revolve around manipulating nuclear bonds, but it still boils down to 'she flies, has a force field, and blasts things'. However, she's not the happy-go-lucky type; she is a vengeful demon when it comes to street criminals; her older brother was a drug dealing gang member, and her family was wiped out in a revenge attack on him. So, she's more like the Punisher than the Human Torch.
Solitaire is the team's mystic and mentalist; her backstory (thoroughly developed in later products) is that she was raised by a cabal of mystics who trained her as an assassin while convincing her that she was in fact an agent of good. On her first assignment, she made the mistake of confronting her victim (a politician) face-to-face, and he was able to thoroughly confuse her, causing her to flee instead of carrying out the assassination. As a result, the cabal now considers her an enemy and a target, and she joined the Champions in order to do good. However, she's still learning what 'doing good' actually means.
Finally, there's Seeker. The most controversial member of the team in fandom, I absolutely love him. He's that blonde ninja on the front cover of the rulebook. And he's a swashbuckling Australian ninja. Yes, you just read those three words in combination. It's such a wild mixture, but it works. He's always the life of the party, but when things get serious, so does he.
The 4th edition book clocks in at a mere 346 pages, and that includes the full rules, a 60-page section on creating a superhero game, and a 70-page sourcebook with the aforementioned Champions heroes, about twenty villains, an introductory scenario, and a full-blown adventure to get the players into the game. Oh, and character creation ends at page 134. Still lengthy, but manageable. Meanwhile, the 5th edition rulebook is 380 pages, and that's just the rules; there's no campaign material whatsoever.
So, here's to the 4th edition of one of the best RPGs of all time. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have another character idea to create. Safe travels, everyone, and game on.
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