Champions 1e: Reflections

Alright, that completes our read-through of the 1st edition Champions game. And now, some thoughts on the game.

First of all, it's interesting to see how many similarities there are between the 1st and 4th, and even 5th, editions. The core essentials of the game didn't change at all. Converting a character between editions isn't difficult at all, thanks to the consistency. That doesn't mean nothing changes, obviously; point costs for powers, skills and disadvantages did change from edition to edition, and Elemental Controls and Multipowers changed several times in an effort to get them right. But for the most part, a character created with these rules can be easily updated to a later edition with minimal effort. That is a good thing.

There are a few things that I felt were missing from these rules. Not just some powers and skills, such as physical illusions (which would appear later on as Images), or the ability to transform something into something else; these would show up later on as well.

But I'm talking about things that, for a lot of people, would be considered essential to a superhero roleplaying game. What about a headquarters? How do you build one? Does the team have a vehicle? There are no rules for designing one in this edition, and there wouldn't be until the Champions II supplement that came out after the 2nd edition rules.

What about your character's secret identity and their job? Are you a mild-mannered reporter? If so, how good are you at your job? The skills list is quite small, and mostly covers ways to simulate Batman and other street-level martial arts heroes. But it does nothing for your secret ID. Again, this stuff would show up in later editions and supplements, but it does feel like an important oversight.

There are a couple of references in the rules to Special Effects, and a reference to a section discussing them. That section is not in this book, anywhere. Definitely an oversight that they corrected in the 2nd edition the following year. Special Effects are different from the Actual Effects of a Power. For example, Starfire can blast cosmic energy from her hands. Human Torch can throw fire. Cyclops has eyebeams. Green Lantern has a power ring that can create a huge boxing glove. Iron Man's armor includes repulsors. Storm can throw lightning. All of these function as an Energy Blast attack, but they all have different special effects. So, the description of the power explains how it works; the special effects are what it looks like. It's a very elegant way to avoid including a long list of powers such as 'lightning bolt', 'ice blast', 'fire blast', etc. They're all Energy Blasts at their core. This is a great concept, and one that really helps the game shine. In the 5th edition, there would be rules covering the different special effects and possible advantage or limitations based on the real-world way the special effect would work, but that was never really necessary. 5th edition got very, very wordy on that sort of stuff.

Here, if the section on special effects had been included, it would have made this 1st edition close to perfect. It's still an excellent way to play superheroes, and it has stood the test of time as the cream of the superhero RPG crop.

Would I run a 1st edition game? Probably not, but then I've got the 4th edition books, all of them, so I'm more comfortable running and playing that edition over any other. But this edition is a great peek at what Champions would eventually become, an embryonic form that has incredible potential. Even though some powers are not yet included, the variety of possible characters with this ruleset is just about unlimited. You could create Superman (from the golden age, or the invincible 60s-70s version, or the Post-Crisis John Byrne version) from these rules. You could create the X-Men. You could create the Justice League or the Avengers, although it would require a much larger number of points to do these characters justice. However, considering how all of these characters got started in the comics, it's fitting that you could create the earliest versions of Superman, Batman, Hawkman, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, Captain America, and others with relative ease from this earliest version of the game rules.

Overall, it was a fun read-through. It was different from my earlier Traveller Let's Read, simply because unlike Traveller, I am quite familiar with Champions and have been for about 35 years. So it was more a case of 'what did this game I love used to look like?' rather than 'what is the game that I've never seen before?' And it's not 80,000 words or so like the Traveller one was, simply because there was only one book here, and only 56 pages (four of which were dedications, copyright info, and table of contents stuff). So of course it was going to be shorter.

What will I do next? I was thinking of creating a few characters (other than Nightshade) with these rules just to see how flexible this early edition really is. I remember some characters I created decades ago for a different game (Villains & Vigilantes), and it would be fun to revisit the ones I remember. So, maybe I'll do some of that. Otherwise, I've got other stuff to go over as well: Book and music reviews, for example. Who knows what tomorrow shall bring?

Until then, face front, true believers, and Excelsior.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pgs 55-56)

Finally! Two pages left, but both are short enough that I'm going to do them both today and get this done. I'll do a final entry talking about my overall impressions of these rules, but for now, let's just finish this off.

The first thing I noticed on page 55 is that we actually have art that fits one of the characters: Shrinker! Yes, we have a cool drawing that visualizes the Shrinking power. I mean, sure, it could be Growth, if you look at it the other way, but on the previous page there's a villain with Shrinking power, so let's go with the obvious. It's nice to actually see some character art that fits what we've seen.

Alright, there's one more character here, but it's not a villain or a hero; it's an agent. Specifically, an agent of VIPER, the bad-guy version of UNTIL. They are mentioned in the background of several characters, such as Crusader and Pulsar, but other than that we've had absolutely no information about this organization. So, here is one of their flunkies. He's almost the same as the UNTIL agent listed earlier; he's stronger, but not as fast or tough. He's a better hand-to-hand fighter, but not as good with his blaster rifle as the UNTIL agent. VIPER is an international organization of top underworld and espionage figures. They hire a lot of mercenaries, including villains, and also hire out their muscle to the highest bidder. VIPER is basically a combination of Hydra from Marvel Comics and SPECTRE from the James Bond series.

VIPER is a mainstay of Champions, existing in every single edition. However, it wasn't until the 4th edition book VIPER that they became something of an actual threat. In fact, once that book came out, VIPER disappeared from a lot of players' Hunteds because of how utterly dangerous the organization became. For now, however, they're just mooks to be mowed down by heroes when they are feeling down on their luck.

The last page is the Afterword. The authors promise to produce more items (a promise they would keep, on a somewhat irregular schedule, for several years) such as adventures, books of villains, and supplements. They also solicit artwork, including character pics and scenes from actual play. Not to mention, they invite new Powers, Skills, Disadvantages, Power Advantages, Limitations, Weapons, Armor, and anything else that might be viewed as necessary. I know that vehicles and bases were a missing piece of these rules, but they would eventually show up.

And, aside from one final piece of art depicting whom I presume is the hero Icestar (mentioned in the Dedications on page 2), that is it for this book. 64 pages, including the eight character sheets in the middle, and we have what is essentially a complete superhero roleplaying game. Imagine that: A complete game in a mere 64 pages. It can be done; many of the early RPGs were on that sort of a tight page count. Today, 64 pages doesn't even cover character creation in most RPGs, let alone combat or campaigning.

So, as I said, I'll do a final overview and collection of my thoughts on this book next time. Let me know what you thought of it, too; I look forward to your comments.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 54)

Okay, we're just about through this puppy. Today we'll cover the last two actual supervillains in the book. The first one is Pulsar. Another no-name Secret ID type, Pulsar was a VIPER agent (more on them next time) who was a volunteer for an experiment that went south. In the explosion, he became Pulsar and turned on VIPER for turning him into a supervillain. You would think he'd be grateful; I imagine the perks of being a supervillain working for an international criminal organization would be way better than being a rank-and-file agent, aka superhero cannon fodder. But some people just don't handle change well.

Pulsar is quick, tough, and difficult to bring down. He's got a powerful NND Energy Blast for 7D6 that is only stopped by Force Fields, and he's quite proficient with it (½ END, +3 levels). He's also a trained hand-to-hand fighter with Martial Arts, and can switch between villain and civilian identities instantly. He's ridiculously overconfident, and does not handle insults well at all; he might even go berserk if you hit him with a particularly good zinger. VIPER is hunting him, of course, and so is UNTIL for his work as a VIPER agent. He takes double damage from physical attacks, and suffers from a spate of bad luck (3D6 Unluck).

Pulsar is another one of those classic villains who has definitely been in every edition of the game. He's a natural skunk that players will love taking down. And in this version, he's actually pretty vulnerable; he doesn't yet have the Force Field power he would have in later editions, and with his vulnerability he's going to do down hard from being punched in the face. Still, every campaign needs a Pulsar.

Our last villain(ess) is the notorious Shrinker. This time we do have a Secret ID: Diana Whitworth. Another experimental transformation in a lab, she gained the power to shrink, and she can both fly and fire energy bolts when she's shrunken down. In a neat little twist, she used to be a hero and part of a New York-based team. The team had issues and temporarily broke up, and she fell into difficulties until she turned to crime to get out of her various jams. Now she enjoys making a fool out of heroes, especially the ones who used to be her teammates. Needless to say, she is hunted by that team as well as the FBI. She's very vulnerable to poison and chemical attacks due to her unique biochemistry, but it's almost impossible to even find her when she doesn't want to be seen. Her Shrinking is 5 levels, meaning she's at -10 to be spotted and +10 DCV. Her physical stats aren't all that impressive, but if you ever saw the Ant-Man movie and the stuff both Scott and Hank Pym could do, you'll know just how dangerous she can be.

So, that's our list of stock villains. Including the sample characters, there's Ogre, Armadillo, Dragonfly, Green Dragon, Howler, Icicle, Mechanon, Pulsar, and Shrinker. That's nine villains plus two heroes (Crusader and Starburst) to help get a campaign started. Not a bad place to begin, I think.

Okay, there are two pages left, and I'll cover both of them next time. Until then, keep the faith, True Believers!

Let's Read Champions 1e (pgs 52-53)

Yes, I'm going to cover two pages today and three characters, because page 52 only has one character ana piece of art that doesn't even match that character. In fact, it looks more like I would expect Starburst to look. A flying guy in a dramatic pose with a cape? Yeah, if it wasn't for the fact that I've seen future editions that included a drawing of Starburst, I would peg this as being him.

However, the character on the page isn't Starburst; it's Howler, our very first female Champions character. Like Dragonfly, Howler isn't given a civilian name even though she has a Secret Identity. She's a sonic energy projector; she can fly, has a Sonic Scream and a Sonic Shield, and her powers come from an alien amulet, Green Lantern-style. She's hunted by the FBI and the police, and she's vulnerable to bullets. She's afraid of guns and of aliens and other strange creatures. Unlike Green Lantern, she isn't a hero; her mind was twisted by the encounter, so she became a supervillain. I don't know if she made it to the 6th edition, but she did make it into 5th and ever other edition prior to that.

On the next page, we get our second female Champions character: Icicle. She's built on only 185 points, and aside from her DEX and CON she's pretty average in terms of her characteristics. Again, no Secret ID name given. Her powers are basically Iceman's starting suite, built in an Elemental Control; her three powers are an Ice Ram (EB), an Ice Slide (Running), and Ice Armor. She's hunted by a New York supergroup, and is vulnerable to fire and lasers. She's a teenage runaway whose father nearly killed her for the crime of being a mutant. So, they're going with the X-Men background in the core game. Well, I suppose. It wasn't completely overdone in 1981 the way it is today.

Ah, here we go...Mechanon. The ultimate bad guy in many campaigns, Mechanon is a robot who was originally supposed to be an LA superteam's security system until his programming went haywire and he decided that his goal in life was to exterminate all organic beings. Oops. Someone rolled an 18 on their Computer Programming roll on that one. Mechanon is a megalomaniacal robot with extreme paranoia that has tons of contingency bodies hidden away in case his current one is destroyed. And every time he is rebuilt, he is given a defense against whatever destroyed him. That's inconvenient. Anyway, Mechanon is build on a whopping 345 points, which is a lot for this edition of the game. He's got a 60 STR, 40 CON, 65 STUN, fully resistant 30 PD and ED, a SPD of 7, a 10D6 EB, flight, flash defense, and 2 Overall Levels. He's hunted by UNTIL and the supergroup that built him, and he's both overconfident and, as mentioned before, a megalomaniac.

Mechanon is built to take on an entire team of heroes by himself. It's funny to see this now, since by 5th edition, 345 points is a beginning superhero's point total (actually 350), and this version of Mechanon is a pansy by comparison. Of course, in later editions he gets plenty more points (4th edition has him somewhere around 770, as I recall, and his 5th and 6th edition versions are even more ridiculous). Still, as it stands Mechanon is probably capable of taking on a full team of 1e characters, assuming they aren't overloaded with Disadvantages to give them stupid amounts of points. I will note that Mechanon is the only character thus far that is given a special 'Villain Bonus' of points to enable him to buy all those powers and abilities without having to take crippling Disads for points. So, that is a handy device. I know we'll see it in other characters in other products, but I doubt we'll see them on the last couple of pages.

And there you have it. Two distaff villains and an uber-villain for your pleasure. Take them on if you dare. Well, the first two should be manageable. But Mechanon...yikes. See you next time.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 51)

Okay, we've got two more characters to meet today. First up: Dragonfly. He was an UNTIL scientist working on DNA experiments with insect genes, because every scientist in comic-book history was an absolute idiot when it came to doing DNA experiments. At least he didn't dose himself on purpose; an accident is responsible. Anyway, thanks to the magic of comic-book science, the experiment serum that got all over him during an electrical explosion didn't just dye his skin green or give him cancer; instead, he turned into a human insectoid with wings and an Energy Blast. He's hunted by both UNTIL and a Chicago supergroup, takes double the stun from Physical attacks, and otherwise is having a rough time of it. He ended up as a villain, to the surprise of no one. Although, in 3rd edition they actually gave all of the sample characters a 'hero option'. It didn't catch on past that edition, though. Too bad; there were some interesting ideas there.

Next up is Green Dragon. He's just a bully with exceptional martial arts abilities. And he has a SPD of 7, which will definitely get your attention. This dude is fast. He bought +3" of running, giving him a base movement of 9". With a SPD of 7, that means he can, if he so chooses, move as fast as 63"/turn, or 126 m. in 12 seconds. That's Olympic sprinter speed. That's Usain Bolt's level. So yeah, Green Dragon is fast. But he's also a deadly martial artist and a master of disguise. He's hunted by UNTIL, the CIA and the FBI; not a popular guy. He's Chinese, has a younger sister that he protects (despite her not wanting to be protected), and has a tendency to go berserk in combat. Here he is called 'Aaron Chow', whereas his later appearances his name was Deng Chow. And here, he's mixed-race (Oriental dad, Occidental mom), and his parents were killed in Hong Kong thanks to a bad villain's insidious plan.

So, that's where we are with these two; they're two iconic Champions villains that have lasted through multiple editions, although I don't know if Dragonfly made it past 4th edition. Green Dragon definitely did, though. And that's it for me for tonight. Next time, I'll be doing just one character, so I might actually do two pages to get it to three characters to make it more interesting. Until then, stay strong and fight on!

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 50)

Okay, we're into the sample characters now. Or rather, the sample villains (with one exception). As I said last time, these are iconic characters that almost all made it through all six editions of the game relatively untouched. The fifth edition versions were given more comprehensive writeups, but overall these characters are stalwarts of the Champions game.

We start off with the one non-villain sample character: An Agent of UNTIL, the United Nations Tribunal on International Law. These are the good-guy agents, the Champions equivalent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The agent is a standard one, built on a mere 50 pts with improved DEX and CON and a SPD of 3. They get Martial arts and a skill level with guns. As normals, they don't have to pay for their equipment, so they are assigned a simple 5D6 blaster rifle and a 6 PD/6 ED bulletproof vest with an Activation roll of 11 or less. No disads required, and they're done.

UNTIL is, as mentioned, the 'good-guy' agency that can act as a liaison for PCs; they have a headquarters in the UN building in New York, and they fight against international crime organizations such as VIPER (a not-so-subtle clone of HYDRA). These agents are the basic squads sent to provide backup to heroes; they're combat types. Later editions would include more detail about the organization, but all we get here is their original purpose was to watchdog countries with nuclear weapons, and it expanded to becoming the super-spy agency under the command of Paraguayan ex-freedom fighter Major Martinez. So, they're a very useful group to have around.

Now we get our first actual villain: Armadillo. Randall Gordon was a junior Engineer for a contractor on the "Armadillo" suit; he saw the suit's potential quite rapidly, and stole it for himself piecemeal to hide the theft. The armor gives him a lot of characteristic boosts (he's basically useless without the armor) such as STR 50 and CON 28, as well as an Energy Blast, full Damage Resistance, an HTH Killing Attack, Tunneling and Life Support. He's hunted by a Chicago superteam, a Canadian superteam, and the organization he stole the armor from; he takes 2x STUN from Ego and Sonic attacks, has a secret identity, and is paranoid about the suit being stolen. Since pretty much everything is bought with his armor, he gets massive cost breaks on his point totals; he's built on only 223 points total. Even his INT is boosted by the armor, which is weird. But, it's there, so we'll roll with it. His most common function in a game is as an errand boy for organized crime, and of course fighting superheroes who try to stop said organized crime.

So, that's our two characters for today. Well, one character and a representative of a whole organization. Armadillo is a bit of a twit, to be honest; as I recall in later editions, he has a tendency to announce his every move, making it easy to counter him once you know what he's capable of. Still, a 50 STR and fully resistant 24 PD and ED makes him a tough customer for beginning heroes, so be careful around him. He might just take you down.

And that's it for now. Tomorrow, we have more characters, both with a dragon motif.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 49)

We're oh so close to the end of this, but first...Design Considerations. Back in the day, this was an important topic for some people, I suppose. Everyone who picked up a fistful of dice dreamed of creating their own RPG someday, so stuff like this was fun to read.

So, obviously comics were the primary resource for the game's inspiration. The powers were designed to enable players to emulate the comic books they read, and the characteristics were selected to give more opportunities to differentiate the heroes from the average people around them. The basic rule of thumb was that a 5-point bonus to STR or an additional die of damage was twice as powerful as the die before it. I'm not sure how that's supposed to work, though; 6D6 damage isn't twice as powerful as 5D6, after all. Maybe they just didn't word it the way they meant to.

Finally, there's a section on changing the game. Designing new powers is an obvious way. While the powers listed in this book are pretty comprehensive, and with Advantages and Limitations almost any comic-book trick can be duplicated, there are still a few things that GMs and players might want to do that really aren't covered. So, GMs might design new powers to compensate for those gaps. The rule is that 50 points in a power is pretty good, while 100 points is wonderful. I would say 'excessive' myself.

The idea is to build powers around the 1D6 per 5 pts. principle, and that powers should be more open-ended to allow for variations and nuances. If you don't think the power should be all that common, boost its minimum cost. Finally, any offense should have a corresponding defense that is much cheaper to buy.

Other ways to change the game (much simpler than just creating new powers) are to start with a higher point base. A 200-point base plus Disadvantages will create a much tougher character than a 100-point base, so this is more for the higher-powered heroes like the JLA or the Avengers. Of course, people have been converting those teams to Champions pretty much since the game was invented. I've seen Superman write-ups built on 2,000 points. Even Batman is over 1,000 points in some of the more ridiculous versions. You couldn't even do Iron Man with these rules without giving him gobs of points to cover all the things in his armor. So, higher base points will give tougher characters, but they still won't match up with the true heavy-hitters of the genre. And that's okay. The most popular characters were usually the mid-level characters like the Teen Titans or the X-Men, so that's what most people would consider playing. That, and Batman clones. Because everyone wanted to be Batman.

Finally, there's an option to just ditch Endurance costs altogether; all powers are automatically at 0 END without any cost breaks. Well, it's an option, and considering just how much END gets used in these earlier editions, it's not a terrible one. 4th edition changed the END cost from 1 per 5 pts. to 1 per 10, which made the END usage much more manageable, and characters weren't dropping from exhaustion fifteen seconds into a fight. In this edition, the 0 END option might be helpful, although it will ensure that fights will be much harder-hitting, since no one will be worried about conserving END.

Well, this entry is wordier than the page I'm reviewing. Yes, that's all there is on this page; the bottom half of the page is reserved for a very nice drawing of an Iron Man clone. So, we've now covered all the rules of the game. What's left? Sample characters, of course. And oh my, these are classics of the Champions game. I think they've all made it through every edition of the game thus far. I might be wrong about some of them, but there are definitely a few that have lasted forty-four years now. We'll start on them next time. Until then, may your dice ever roll true.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 48)

When last we met our dastardly villains, we were discussing their penchant for not killing heroes outright but rather sticking them in inescapable deathtraps that the heroes would then escape from before valiantly defeating the bad guys. The most important question about deathtraps is: Why?! Why put them in a trap that they are sure to escape from instead of just doing the smart thing and finishing them off right then and there?

Well, there are a few reasons. First, the villain may be grandiose enough that he truly thinks that the deathtrap will suffice to end the hero, and he wants to revel in his own genius. Of course, that one never works out well for the villain. Second, he might want to get a better idea of just what the hero is actually capable of; if he can't get out of the trap, so much the better. But if he does...the villain might have learned something about the hero's capabilities and weaknesses. Third, hostages are a tried and true villain tradition, too. Use the captured hero as bait to get more of them. Sidekicks are, of course, the ultimate hostage bait. Hi, Robin.

There's another reason that villains might not want to just execute the heroes; it tends to irritate the other heroes around, and having several teams of heroes looking to take you out because you killed one of their own is a good way to get yourself way in over your head. Sure, you can take down one mid-level hero, but when the Avenging Crusaders get wind of it, they'll be after you in full force.

Villains tend to be solo operators, not doing well in groups. Most solo villains should be a little bit tougher than normal, since they've got to be able to stand up to multiple heroes at once. Unless you're running a solo game, of course, with one hero taking on the underworld by himself. In that case, don't overpower the villains. Think of Spider-Man's rogues' gallery, or even Batman's. The villains are tough enough to challenge the hero, but not usually too much for him to handle alone (or with a sidekick).

Of course, some villains do run in packs. Maybe it's because they share an origin, or they're tired of getting beaten up by the hero and decide to work together to take him down. The first group tends to stay together longer than the second group, especially when egos get involved. But a well-coordinated supervillain team can be an absolute nightmare for a group of heroes. They compensate for each other's weaknesses, coordinate their attacks, and can form bonds as tight as hero groups under the right circumstances. Groups like this can be a great part of a campaign if done right.

So, that covers the villain stuff. Next up we have everyone else, the common, non-powered people that populate the game. In some cases, there will be just one or two of these people; for the longest time, the only civilians in Batman's life were Alfred and Commissioner Gordon. Superman had Lois Lane and George Taylor at first (Perry White's predecessor as editor of the paper); Jimmy Olsen came along later.

On the other hand, Spider-Man has almost as many civilians in his life as villains. Aunt May, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Flash Thompson, J. Jonah Jameson, Robbie Robertson, Liz Allan...the list is lengthy, to say the least. But Spider-Man is usually a solo act, so having a strong supporting cast helps flesh out his stories. In a Champions game, DNPCs and (sometimes) Hunteds will be the source of these supporting characters. These people can be reporters, police officers, younger siblings, elderly relatives, or whatever comes to mind. They are invaluable to a Champions game because they will give the setting a more grounded feel. Not everyone is a super; ordinary people are important, too.

Finally, a game shouldn't be static. The world exists outside of the PCs, and the game should reflect that. Things happen that don't involve the PCs but still make the news; let them know about these things. They can provide hints for future adventures, or just background noise to make the world feel more alive. Either way, it's a good practice to have.

Alright, that appears to cover the rules of the game, but we still have more to go in the book and on this page. And what do we have her? The Origins of Champions! That's right, George MacDonald is going to tell us how this game got started. Turns out it got started because he was bored in class. I can relate to that, but unfortunately I didn't design an award-winning RPG when I was in college. Too bad for me.

Anyway, George fleshed out the basics of combat and characteristics, but developing the point system took time and a second person, Wayne Shaw. His system inspired George, although the system we saw in the previous 48 pages isn't much like Wayne's work at all. Still, Wayne gets a shout-out for his efforts, which is nice. It took a couple of years of development and playtesting for the game to finally see print. Several people get mentioned as being important in the game's development, including Ray Grier, Glenn Thain, and Tom Tumey among others.

There's a partial paragraph remaining on this page, but I'm going to save it for the next page since it's tied to what's on page 49, and it isn't a full page anyway. So, that's it for this one. We're nearly through to the end, which is exciting. Stick with it, folks; it'll be worth it.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 47)

Let's continue with the World Building, shall we? The next note is that while many campaigns will be set in a single city, there's a fun variation where you can have multiple GMs in a group, and they all run their games in a different city in the same country. So, you might have one GM running a team in New York, a second on in Miami, and a third in Washington DC. This enables characters to easily transfer between campaigns; Mega-man's secret identity is working for a newly-elected Congressman, so he leaves the New York team and joins the DC team instead, still in the same campaign world but with a different GM. Villains and organizations can be across multiple campaigns, and the GMs can come up with a common background to fill in more detail than a single GM could accomplish. This can be a great way to run a set of games, although the GMs do have to ensure they don't do anything that will disrupt the other games (the New York team tries to stop a massive flood but fails, meaning Miami is inundated...the other campaign will have some serious problems to deal with based on someone else's game, which isn't good).

Alright, so the next section is on the Superhero Rationale. Why do they do it? What pushes a person who gains (accidentally or deliberately) superhuman abilities to put on a colorful costume and fly around helping people? The answer to that question goes a long way toward helping to define the character's personality. And a team of heroes can have different reasons, but the motivation ends up in the same place: Helping other people. Maybe one hero is seeking revenge on a supervillain who harmed a loved on; another one had a wise uncle who told him that with great power comes great responsibility. And some of them are doing it because it's fun, or because it's an ego boost to be the idol of millions. We also get a paragraph on the unwritten 'hero code'. Be better than the villain; capture them, not kill them. Of course, that leaves the possibility of villains escaping (which they do with depressing frequency). However, most law enforcement and even other heroes will generally respond better to the 'good guy' persona rather than the Punisher-types.

Speaking of other heroes, it's possible that you are running a game where the PCs are the only superheroes in the world (as in the latest Fantastic Four movie, First Steps). However, if that isn't the case, then you're going to have to populate the campaign with other heroes. You can certainly use Crusader and Starburst as NPC heroes if you want, but you're probably going to need more than just the two of them. The key to using them is to not let them overshadow the PCs; having Black Widow show up to help with an investigation is great; having Thor show up and pummel the villains that the PCs aren't strong enough to fight themselves is not. Let Thor fight his own villains, and make sure that the PCs at least have a chance against the villains they fight.

Another good thing about NPC heroes is that when they are put together as a team, they can serve as an example of what the PCs should be doing. Maybe the Philadelphia Patrol have a snazzy headquarters that the PCs would like to emulate, or the Dallas Dream Team are the standard by which all others are measured. Alternatively, you can have a team made up of PC and NPC heroes. This both gives the GM a chance to get in on the action, and allows him to have some subtle input into the direction the group takes in a scenario. This has to be done carefully though, so as to not make the 'correct path' too obvious through NPC fiat.

Agents and agent groups are a staple of comics. Everyone knows Hydra's motto: Cut off one head, two more take its place. Well, they are great opponents for heroes, especially lower-powered ones. But organizations might be looking to add some super-powered muscle to deal with those pesky heroes. Agent groups are usually normal, average characters with weapons and occasional special devices. They can be given more points to make them more competent (or give them a bigger gun), but this shouldn't be overused; if agents are too tough, then what makes the supers super? The occasional 50-pt agent would be a challenge, certainly, especially if played smart by a competent DM.

Last on this page we have Supervillain Rationales. Like the heroes, the villains have a tendency to have reasons for what they are doing. These are mostly covered earlier on pages 41 and 42, but this is less about what they are doing, and more with why they are doing it. Then we get the age-old question: Why doesn't the villain just kill a captured hero instead of monologuing and deathtraps? Good question. Maybe they hate the hero so much that a quick death isn't painful enough. So, into the Death Trap they go.

This section continues on the next page; we'll get to it next time. Until then, may all your dice roll high when you need them to.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 46, cont.)

Alright, now that we've learned how to play, it's time to discuss World Building. This is the last section of the book before we get the rest of the sample characters and the end of the book. This is less than half the page, but it's important stuff.

So, the first decision the GM has to make is where the campaign is set. Is it a major city, like New York, Los Angeles, or Toronto? Is it across the ocean in Tokyo or London? Is it even on Earth, or is it out in space? The possibilities are pretty much endless, so it's important to think about this before you do anything else. This includes not only where, but when the game is set. Maybe you're playing a steampunk superheroes game set in Victorian England (or the Gilded Age prior to the First World War). Maybe it's a Legion of Super-Heroes game set in the far future. Or you're going back to where superheroes began, to the Golden Age and World War II. Again, the possibilities are endless. Just remember that the farther from the current time you go, the less players will know about the setting, and the more work you will have to do to set up the campaign.

For this reason, contemporary campaigns are the easiest to set up and play in. Other than the existence of supers, you can basically assume that the world is the same as ours, and current events can play into the scenarios you create. You can also link character backgrounds to recent events, such as 9/11 or the financial crash of 2008.

Next up is 'how big will you go?' A Fantastic Four-style game can go all over the world, or even outside of it; in their first few years, the FF went to the moon and much further into space, as well as all over the world. Meanwhile, Spider-Man spent most of his time in New York, rarely expanding his adventures beyond the city that never sleeps. Smaller is easier, and requires less additional prep on the part of the GM. On the other hand, world-spanning superheroes like the Avengers and the Justice League might not do too well when confined to a single city, even one as big as New York.

Then you get technology questions. How close is tech to what we have now? In a society that's had supers for a few decades, it's likely that there will be higher levels of technology available simply because of all the Tony Starks and Lex Luthors out there that are always coming up with new gadgets and inventions, many of which would certainly hit the consumer market at some point. If your supers go all the way back to the Golden Age, it's even more likely that ninety years later, tech levels would be higher than anything we have today.

But it's not just modern tech to consider; there might be ancient tech buried in lost cities, or even low-tech stuff like swords and armor. And magic is a possible substitute for technology in some cases, depending on your preferences (and possibly the kinds of heroes your players come up with). Regardless, the GM will, of course, have the final say, not only in available technologies, but also character choices; you don't have to approve every character concept the players hand you, especially if they don't fit. For example, you're running a super-science style game and one of the players wants to play a supernatural ghost that possesses people. If it doesn't fit the game you want to run, don't allow it.

Alright, that's a short entry for today, but we'll get to more world-building next time. See you then.

And I just realized that this was my 600th post on this blog! Milestone reached! Next target...700.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pgs 43-46)

Alright, it's time for the example of play, which takes up quite a bit of space. It's a quick scenario that teaches the basic rules and gives examples of all the important concepts. All this in less than four pages. It's got an interesting beginning: The first thing the GM asks is 'what are your secret identities?' This actually makes some sense; if you go back to the character creation examples, you'll see that while both Crusader and Starburst have the Secret ID disadvantage, but they aren't actually defined or given names. In this case, the two players define their character's jobs, but not their names. Starburst is a scientist; Crusader is a newspaper reporter.

So, the scenario starts with Crusader's secret ID making a deposit at the bank; Starburst is just bored at work, so he's flying around. Sure, why not? Needless to say, he just happens to be near the same bank that Crusader is in. Just as coincidentally, Ogre shows up with three henchmen intent on robbing the place. The action starts with Crusader ducking into a glass-enclosed cubicle to change into his heroic identity. Meanwhile, Starburst is flying by just in time to see the idling parked truck outside the bank and hear the glass breaking in the bank.

At this point, the GM goes to combat time and uses the Speed Chart. Crusader has a SPD of 6, Starburst 5; Ogre has a 4, and his henchmen all have 2, being treated as normals with average stats. This is done mostly to save time; henchmen really don't need a lot of detail or complicated character generation. Crusader is the only one to go on segment 2, and flips over the cubicle and punches the nearest gunman (Martial Punch). He makes an Acrobatics skill roll and catches the gunman by surprise, reducing his CV to 2 and giving himself a 17 or less to hit. He knocks the gunman out with a single punch, because that's what superheroes do to normals.

Next segment, Starburst flies in and does a Move Through on Ogre from behind. He hits him and does 7D6 damage, which works out to 26 STUN and 8 BODY; Ogre's defenses are enough to reduce that to a mere 3 STUN. Ogre responds by throwing a table at the impertinent hero, which stuns him (he takes 24 STUN after his defenses, which exceeds his CON). Well, that didn't work out well, did it?

Meanwhile, Crusader continues to mow down defenseless henchmen. Before anyone else can react, he takes out two of them with a single kick, knocking one into the other and stunning the second one. Martial Artists are great at taking out mooks, aren't they? But there's still the big guy to deal with, and Crusader turns his attention to Ogre. His attack is about as effective as Starburst's was. Fortunately, he's more nimble than Starburst, and avoids the counterattack. An old lady with a purse knocks out one of the gunmen who is recovering from being stunned. Well, not everyone runs away when the fight starts.

Starburst tries to blast Ogre, which is more effective since the villain's ED is lower than his PD. But it doesn't knock him out, of course. Ogre is a tough cookie. Ogre throws another table, but misses. Realizing how tough Ogre is, Crusader pushes his STR to hit Ogre as hard as he possibly can; he then waits for Starburst to attack so they can strike simultaneously. The tactic works, and they knock Ogre into next week with a two-pronged attack; Starburst likewise pushes his Energy Blast to maximize his damage potential, so the attack is pretty tiring for both of them. But it worked, so who cares, right?

After a snappy quip on the last henchman, the cops show up and the two heroes bask in the glory of the adoration of the press. And they get 2 XP each for the brief scenario. Not a bad bit of work, is it?

So, that's the scenario example. It's a standard one through the first few editions of the game, updated for the changes to the characters over time. But it gets the point across, and has plenty of action to explain the rules. So, it's definitely a good way to introduce the game.

And that will do it for now; I'll be back next time with the rest of page 46, which is about World Building. Stay tuned.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 43)

Okay, we're continuing with some notes on running Champions games. Normals are pretty much all non-superpowered people. And they have a tendency to get caught in the middle of super-battles. Normals are quite fragile in comparison to supers, so players have to be careful when they are between the heroes and the villains. Of course, the villains might be totally fine with normals being on the battlefield; it gives them lots of targets or hostages. It's up to the GM how to handle this; do they all flee from the area, or do they mill about with their cell phones to take all the video they can?

Unbalanced characters can be a problem in Champions. Since players can create their characters any way they want to, it's entirely possible that you have a player whose character is basically a glass cannon: Awesome firepower, virtually no defenses. This can be an issue for some players, since they are trying to create balanced characters, and the unbalanced one can take all the spotlight due to their 20D6 Energy Blast that takes out pretty much every villain in one shot. Remember, all the players are there to have fun, not just one of them.

Some scenarios will be one-off adventures, one-and-done that are quickly forgotten. Others will be part of a long-running campaign. Campaigns are more like the comic book series in which there are many adventures, but there are consequences that carry over into future issues. Again, it's up to the GM to decide how games will be run; some campaigns will be extremely serial, with one overarching plot that carries the entire story. These are fine, but better as mini-series within a campaign rather than expecting the one plot to carry a long-term campaign. Still, as the game progresses, the heroes will meet NPCs, form relationships, gain long-term enemies...just like the comics. And that is a good thing.

Okay, so how do characters improve? This is where experience points come in. Every adventure, the characters will gain one or more experience points. Why so few? After all, other games collect XPs by the hundreds or thousands. Why does Champions have such low XP numbers?

Because, True Believers, in Champions, every experience point is an brand-new power point that you can use to buy more powers, characteristics and skills. You can increase your Energy Blast or Strength, buy a new Omni-Gun, or learn martial arts as your character gains experience. The question, then, is how many experience points to give out? Well, there's a helpful list of situations that can earn (or even reduce) XP for a session. Tougher opposition gains more points; longer adventures will tend to earn more points as well. Playing in character within your character concept is worth additional XP, while playing outside of it can actually reduce your reward. For example, if Spider-Man spends a session brooding and fighting like he's Wolverine or the Punisher, that would be out of character (unless he was really pissed off). Likewise, Batman bouncing around the battlefield dropping quips and pantsing mooks would definitely be out of character. If you're going to be Batman, be Batman.

A final note about XP: Each character earns their own XP in an adventure; it's not a party pool divided evenly. So, some characters may gain more than others depending on how they played.

Alright, the next part of the book is our example scenario featuring the characters we were introduced to earlier during character creation: Crusader, Starburst, and Ogre. It covers nearly three pages, so I'm going to give that its own separate entry next time. And so, once again we say farewell, until we meet again.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 42)

We are continuing with villain motivations today. There are four more here to go along with the four from last page. First up, we have Seeking Power. This is a lesser version of Conquering the World; the villain is power hungry, and is trying to control a nation, other villains, even a city. But they aren't world-beater villains.

Then there's the villains who are just having fun. This can be as innocuous as Bat-Mite's antics trying to get Batman to look good, or as deadly as the Joker's version of 'fun'. Or, it could be villains just getting thrills from beating up heroes, or stealing things, or causing property damage. This covers a wide range of things.

Some villains are treating this as a game, Matching Wits with the heroes. The Riddler, of course, is a classic version of this archetype. So is the Wizard from the Frightful Four, seeking to match wits with Reed Richards. These guys are usually not quite as deadly as the more serious villains, although they certainly don't have to be easy-going, either. The Riddler, after all, has amassed a bit of a body count of his own.

Finally, there's the catch-all motivation of 'Accomplishing a Goal'. This can be literally anything that isn't covered by the other motivations. Maybe the villain is trying to build a spaceship to return to his home planet, or seeking to recover something stolen by another villain (or even, unwittingly, a hero). This one covers a lot of ground.

There's a recommendation to borrow liberally from comics as well as pulp magazines, science fiction, detective stories, etc. Super-hero adventures can be as small as a mystery requiring problem-solving and clue-finding, or as big as stopping Darkseid from conquering Earth and subjugating every living soul on the planet. Each adventure is up to you to figure out.

Alright, now we get classic "bits" from comics, things that appear so often that they are basically superhero clichés. Things like deathtraps, where the villain captures the hero, but instead of killing him on the spot he cackles with glee about how impotent the hero is to stop his plans, monologuing about his greatness and placing the hero in an impossible-to-escape deathtrap to finish him off. Of course, the hero escapes and the villain gets some insight into his powers and skills. Deathtraps can be as simple as throwing the hero out of an airplane (assuming he can't fly or glide), sealing the room and filling it with water (this won't work very well on Aquaman), or recreating the Star Wars garbage chute scene where the walls are closing in. These are just a few examples; deathtraps are limited only by the villain's (and your) imagination.

Then there's threatening the innocent. Villains do this all the time; grab a hostage and use them as a shield or to warn off the hero long enough for the villain to escape. This can also involve more dramatic gestures, like toppling a building or throwing a car at a crowd of people. All of these things are sure to get the heroes to react in a way that let's the villain gain some advantage.

Some villains will play possum, pretending to be stunned or knocked out in hopes that the hero will be distracted by another villain or rescue situation. This can also be used to draw a hero in for a sneak attack. Whatever works; there are no rules for the villains.

Ah, soliloquies, or monologues. Yes, all villains are basically required to do this at some point. But they aren't the only ones; Spider-Man is notorious for his constant chatter during fights. Wisecracks, epic speeches (Hi, Thor!) and the like are just as important as the villain's step-by-step explanation of his evil Master Plan. Use them wisely.

Exclamations are a subset of soliloquies; this is just catch phrases uttered by heroes and villains to show how serious the situation is, or to express surprise at a sudden change. 'Great Caesar's ghost!' is an example from Superman lore; He-Man has 'By the Power of Greyskull!' to keep him warm, and of course, Captain America's legendary 'Avengers Assemble!' battle cry. All of these are examples of exclamations that characters can use to give themselves a bit of an identifying mark.

Okay, so that's some of the common 'bits' you can use to spice up the adventure. Next, there's the problem of getting the characters involved in the scenario. This is especially important for the first scenario, where it's entirely possible the heroes don't know each other at all, and maybe haven't ever met before. This can be as simple as superhero coincidence magic, where several heroes will just happen across the scene of a crime at the same time, or perhaps the characters are contacted and made to work together to solve a particular problem on behalf of the token Rich Guy. There are tons of ways to get them together; just don't use the 'mysterious stranger at an inn' routine. That's a whole different game.

Now we get some general notes on playing, or how to conduct the game. Since Champions characters can be rather complex (especially in later editions), it's recommended that players only play a single hero at a time. This not only gives them more screen time in the game, since they are only sharing the spotlight with one other character per player, but it also gives more time to develop that character's personality and history as they are the player's sole focus for the duration of the game.

Unlike Traveller, this game doesn't recommend a lot of players. Even a single character can get into all sorts of trouble on his own, so beginning GMs shouldn't run too many players. They don't give a target number, but considering the typical size of a superhero team is about six people, that would seem to be a reasonable number of players, as well.

It's also recommended that the GM take copious notes to keep track of the small details. Consistency isn't always going to be perfect, but it's something to consider keeping track of. Furthermore, those little details can end up being quite important later on. Besides, you know the players are going to be taking down notes on every odd thing they encounter, so give them something to play with. Plus, it's possible that in a future supplement, someone will produce a running record of their game sessions so people can marvel at a well-run superhero campaign.

Finally, on this page at least, we have a discussion of background information. If miniatures are available, they are recommended. If not, it's on the GM to describe not only the scenario, but also the scenery in case fighting happens. After all, it doesn't do anyone any favors if the brick hero doesn't know about the park bench just sitting there, waiting to be used as a club on a bad guy's head. So, give them some property to destroy.

And that's it for this page. Next time, we'll learn about experience points and how they work, and get our first example of game play. Can't wait!

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 41)

Today, we will finish up with the weapons and the last part of combat: Property damage. Then, we'll go straight into building scenarios for Champions games. Ready? Let's go!

So, we have weapons advantages to look at first. There are three of them, so we'll go one at a time. First, Weapon has a large number of uses. This is basically a Charges advantage rather than a limitation, since it has more than 15 charges and thus will be more efficient than a power that normally uses Endurance Pips. If the weapon has between 15 and 25 charges, it's a +¼ advantage; up to 50 is a +½ advantage, and up to 100 is a +¾ advantage.

Autofire: This is firing multiple shots at once. Each shot is hitting the same target; you can't split them up at this point. Your attack gets a +4 to OCV, and the range modifier is halved. If you make the attack roll, you hit the target once. For every 2 points below the target number you roll, you hit an additional time. For example, after all modifiers the target is a 9 or less. If you roll a 6, you hit the target once for beating 9, and once more for beating 7 (two less than 9). You then roll two separate damage attacks; they are not combined. Autofire uses 10 shots, and is a +¼ advantage.

The third weapon advantage is Selective Fire. This means you can either shoot single shots or Autofire with the same weapon. This is a +½ advantage.

Now, your weapons are not limited to these advantages; they can also use the normal Power Advantages from earlier in the book. For example, grenades have the Explosive advantage. A 'mind-blast gun' built by a super-scientist might have Based on Ego Combat Value, or a microwave gun uses the No Normal Defense advantage. Likewise, limitations such as Limited Uses (Charges) and Focus are very, very common for weapons.

Alright, now we get to the brick's favorite pastime: breaking things. Things are always being broken in superhero comics. Cars, buildings, lampposts, construction sites, nuclear power plants...everything is a target at some point. So, every object has a Body Pip score to show how much damage they can take before breaking. Their Body Pip score also counts as their Defense score, in case someone is hiding behind it. If an object takes twice its Body score, it's gone. Vaporized, destroyed, whatever; it's not there anymore. For example, Nightshade blasts a brick wall, which has 8 BODY. He rolls his damage and scores 9 BODY points. The wall now has a hole in it, but it's still standing.

We then get a list of examples of things that can be broken in the game, such as reinforced concrete, automobiles, light poles, fire hydrants, bank vaults, tanks, airplanes, helicopters, and more. Some of them can have higher BODY scores if they are extra-thick or heavy; some of them (machinery) are generally rendered nonfunctional if they take half their BODY. For example, an airplane is given a BODY score of 10; if it takes 5 BODY, it's not flying anymore. It's still physically intact, but its guts are scrambled and will need to be repaired.

And that's it for the combat section. Yay! Now, on to the scenario building section.

First of all, the scenario you are creating needs a theme. This can be as simple as 'beat up the bad guys', or stopping their goals, such as robbing a bank or conquering the world. Or, the characters could be working against nature (trying to prevent a flood, or minimizing the damage from an earthquake, etc.). A great way to find a theme is to use a character's Disadvantages, such as Hunteds and DNPCs.

We now get a list of possible motivations for the villains; some will apply to certain characters, others will not. It depends on the type of villain. Doctor Doom or Lex Luthor have much different motivations than the Joker or the Rhino.

Conquering the World is a classic for megalomaniacal epic villains; generally, it involves complex plans of blackmail to force governments to bow to the villain's invincible might. Perhaps the villain is threatening nuclear destruction, or preparing to unleash a plague, or simply becoming powerful enough to defeat anyone who stands against them.

But, as a wise old butler once said, some men just want to watch the world burn. These guys aren't interesting in taking over the world; they want to destroy it. Galactus is a classic example; he's just hungry, and Earth is on the menu. Or an ocean-based villain seeks to flood the surface world and end human civilization. Some plots can parallel the ones from the previous motivation; the difference, of course, is that the villain isn't trying to blackmail anyone; he's actually going to do the big terrible thing.

Revenge is a classic; the villain wants to get back at the guy who threw him in jail the last time they fought. Or, the villain feels that the hero somehow wronged him; maybe he failed to save the person's loved one, and thus he became an embittered villain. These are best developed in play; a villain's first appearance shouldn't involve revenge unless it's part of his origin story.

The last one on this page is one of the simplest: The bad guy wants to get rich. Whether it's just getting money for the sake of having it, wanting to really upgrade his lifestyle, or he's trying to finance a more grandiose scheme that will allow him to conquer or destroy the world, money is a necessary component of his plot. This can range from a simple bank robbery to stealing the value of the world's financial markets.

And that's it for this page. There are more motivations on the next page, but we'll get to them next time. Until then, up, up, and away!

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 40)

Alright, we're continuing on with weapons and, eventually, armor. First of all, we get descriptions of some of the special weapons on the table from the previous page. The Manpack SAM is a heatseeker; if the target is generating large heat blooms, there's no range modifier. However, if there's no heat, there's no missile lock, and it won't fire. Velocity is...400" per segment. Well, that's fast. I mean, ridiculously fast. Stupidly fast. That's a Flight speed of 4800" per turn, which with a SPD of 6 means you bought 800" of flight. That's 1600 points. Nobody is flying that fast in combat, period. Sure, with lots of non-combat multiples you could get there, but damn, that's ridiculous.

Next is the Heavy SAM, which is radar-guided, so it will only target metallic or large targets, and again there's no range modifier. And it's 550" per segment, even faster than the Manpack SAM. The Antitank Missile is flying at a paltry 100" per segment, which is still 1200" per turn, or 200" of Flight at SPD 6. I'm not sure they really thought the whole 'cost of flight speed' thing through for these weapons. Because it's simply not possible to buy those types of speeds for characters without putting massive limitations on the power.

The Shotgun has a special attack; anyone hit by a shotgun blast takes three separate 1D6 Killing Attacks, each applied against his resistant PD. So, if he's got 8 points of resistant defense, a shotgun isn't going to hurt at all.

So, that's the weapons. Next are the Sights. These are just accuracy-aiders for the various weapons, and three are listed here: A Telescopic Sight, which gives a +1 to OCV and a +3 to the overall range modifiers, and costs 4 points; a Laser Computing Sight, which is +2 OCV and +6 Range, costing 8 points; and a Starlight Scope costing 4 points which offers no bonuses but cancels out the night-time penalties. All sights take an extra phase to use, though, so it's not something to do when you're in the middle of a fight.

Alright, that covers ranged weapons. Next up are the melee weapons. Like the ranged weapons, these are given a more general range instead of specific weapons. There are four listed here: Knife (+½D6 HKA, 5 pts), Sword (+1½D6 HKA, 12 pts), Nightstick (+1D6 normal damage, 2 pts) and Club (+2D6 normal damage, 5 pts). The knife and sword only do their listed damage unless the character has an existing Killing Attack outside of them that he can add their damage to.

It's a short section; next up are the Explosives. These are basically Energy Blasts or Ranged Killing Attacks that have the Explosive power advantage, meaning they do damage to everything within a certain radius, with distance reducing the damage proportionally. We get six explosive devices (Frag grenade, concussion grenade, dynamite stick, 4 dynamite sticks, mortar round, and howitzer round) plus a bonus: Gas Tank. Yep, there are rules here for blowing up a gas tank. That's always fun.

Armor. Not the power, although that is what you would use to buy these devices. These are the sort of stuff cops or SWAT teams might be wearing. All of them are fully resistant, of course. Bulletproof vests give a +6 to PD and ED, Flak vests +8, and Flak suits +8 with a better chance of working. The first two have Activation rolls of 11 or less; the suit has 14 or less, since it covers more area. Again, there are point costs given in case players want their own characters to have this equipment.

And that will do it for this page; there's a quick tease at the bottom of what to expect on the next page, which is: Weapon Advantages. See you then.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 39)

Hey, faithful readers! If you've made it this far, you must really like old-school RPGs, because this Champions read-through has dominated the blog for the past little while. There are other things to talk about, of course, but for now I'm sticking with this. And so are you, so kudos.

Alright, we continue with details on falling damage. Specifically, a table that shows how fast and how far you fall, broken down by segments. Did you know that in twelve seconds, you can fall 285", or 570 meters? That's half a kilometer. That will hurt. Velocity maxes out at 30" per segment, so the most damage you'll take from falling is only 30D6. No wonder they call it terminal velocity; a fall that hard is pretty much guaranteed to kill any normal person.

Oh, there's an interesting rule. If a character is conscious, he may subtract his Superleap inches from the number of dice of damage done. So if the Hulk is falling, and he's got 20" of Superleap, terminal velocity on him will only be 10D6, which isn't even going to stub his toe. You can also slow your falling velocity if you can grab or fall through something. Grabbing something subtracts its BODY pips from the velocity; if the velocity exceeds the object's BODY, it snaps. You still have the lower velocity, though.

And now, we come to the weapons. The weapons table is basically just ranged guns of various types. Not specifics; you won't find stats for a Glock or a .44 Magnum, but there are stats for a 'pistol', 'rifle', 'autocannon', and 'tank gun'. There are light, medium and heavy variants for several of these as well. What's interesting is that the damage listings comes in two parts: Killing damage and Normal damage. This is so you can take a weapon as an Energy Blast, for example, which does normal damage rather than killing damage. Super-agent blasters, for example. They're high-tech plasma rifles, but they work the same as a normal rifle, just doing normal instead of killing damage. The choice has to be defined when the weapon is bought with points. Note that 'STUN only' is also an option.

The table also gives the range mods for each weapon; some of them are very, very accurate. Instead of the normal -1 per 3" rule we have seen, the more powerful guns have range mods of -1 per 6" for a machine gun, -1 per 16" for a heavy autocannon, and -1 per 24" for a very heavy tank gun. Autocannons and tank guns have to be mounted on vehicles or in static mounts; the range mod includes the 'braced' modifier already, so you can't take it again.

The table gives the cost of the weapon to buy it as a power as well. There are three costs given for the portable weapons, listed as 6/11/13, for example. The lowest point total is for a weapon that fires one shot per phase; the second is for weapons that only shoot on Autofire mode, and the third is for weapons that can do both.

Finally, there are some special weapons at the bottom, including a shotgun and surface-to-air missiles. these all just do killing damage; they don't mess around. The heavy SAM actually does killing explosion damage, which is just nasty.

I know, it's another short page. But it's done, and there's nothing I can do about it. Next time we'll get more details on some of the special weapons, as well as rules for sights, melee weapons, and explosives. Blowing stuff up is always fun in comic books, isn't it?

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 38)

Welcome back, and we're still talking about movement. We get a note that if a character has skill levels that can be applied to his Flight power, he can use those levels to lower his Turn Mode by one inch for each Skill Level applied. We also get a visual example of how Turn Mode works, which is helpful.

If you're climbing in the air, it takes 2" of Flight to gain 1" of altitude. You can dive 1" per every 1" of Flight for free, but you have to use your Turn Mode to pull out, so be careful not to get too close to the ground or you will definitely get a boo-boo. Oh, and your STR is limited while you're flying; you can only use as much STR as you have inches of flying speed. This doesn't affect your punching damage, but it does affect how much you can carry or move while flying.

If you're out of combat, you can magnify your Flight speed for that phase. This is called 'noncombat movement', and it's calculated by your points in Flight divided by 5 and multiplied by your inches of Flight per phase. Let's see if I have this right. If you have 20 points in Flight, that's 10". Divide the points in Flight by 5 and you get 4 (20/5), multiplied by your inches of Flight is 10, so your noncombat movement would be 40" per phase. Well, that's not too shabby. And it doesn't cost you extra END, either.

Gliding is reliant on atmosphere for moving around; it uses the same Turn Mode and dive rate as Flight, although climbing is much better when there are either thermals or good winds. Leaping is 1" per 5 points of STR, unless you buy additional. A straight-up leap is 1" per 10 points of STR, and a leap is a full move action. Unlike the Hulk, you can't change direction in mid-leap, either. Finally, there's Teleport. You can't use it as a way out of taking falling damage; if you are falling at, say, 30" of velocity and you try to teleport away, you're still going to be falling at 30" after the teleport.

Now, there's an optional rule here for 'segmented movement', which basically means you're moving even on phases you don't have available to you through the fact that you're actually moving, not starting and stopping over and over again. This can apply to vehicle movement, or falling, or other situations where your SPD isn't really a factor (so, basically out of combat only). There's a handy table that shows not only the inches per segment, but also the equivalent in KPH and MPH. All you need is 10" per segment to get to 40 MPH. With a SPD of 6 and a Flight or Running speed of 30", you would actually be moving as fast as a car on the freeway. Isn't that lovely? There are also some brief formulas to calculate your speed for numbers that aren't on the chart.

Last but not least, we have rules on falling objects. Everything falls at the same rate, subject to having movement powers such as Flight or Gliding that can mitigate those circumstances. If it's falling, it uses segmented movement for additional realism. Every segment, the object's speed increases by 5" until the maximum of 30" is reached by segment 6. Bear in mind that a falling object takes damage when it hits, but we'll get to that on th enext page. Objects that have greater density (every doubling of mass over 100 kg) will increase the maximum velocity by +1" per segment.

Alright, another page in the books. On the next page we will finish up the falling rules, and then we'll get into...weapons. Yep, machine guns and antitank missiles are coming right up. Don't you dare miss it!

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 37)

We are rolling right along; there are only twenty pages left to go. Let's continue our review of Perception rolls. As I mentioned last time, a PER roll is a normal roll of 3D6 where the goal is to roll 9 + INT/5 or less. So, an average person with an INT of 10 would need an 11 or less. Enhanced Senses can affect this roll; for example, Wolverine would have Enhanced Senses for his sense of smell. Range modifiers apply to PER rolls just as they do to attack rolls: -1 to the roll per 3" of distance between the character and whatever they are attempting to perceive. At night, PER rolls related to sight get a -1 per 1" of distance unless the character has Enhanced Senses that allow them to see clearly at night, such as UV Vision. As a rule of thumb, the combat modifiers can be applied to PER rolls as well (for example, seeing a very small target would take a penalty to the roll due to the target's size).

The next paragraph discusses how different types of PER rolls can be adjudicated; Hearing PER rolls won't be as accurate for targeting someone as a Sight PER roll. And the last sentence says that Sight PER rolls at night are at a base of -3. This directly contradicts the previous paragraph's note that it's -1 per 1" of distance. I would ignore that final sentence and stick to the range modifier version myself.

Don't overdo PER rolls; some things are just plain obvious. However, PER rolls do have a use in combat; if you're in a fight with Megaman and his henchman Ratfink is sneaking up behind you, a PER roll might help you avoid a sneak attack from the dastardly villain. However, don't use PER rolls too often; it will slow down the game.

Okay, now we move to Characteristic rolls. These are just the same as PER rolls; you roll 3D6 and the target number is 9 + the characteristic's value divided by 5. So, a STR roll (you're trying to lift a bus, for example) would be targeting 9 + STR/5. If your STR is 40, then the roll would be 9 + 40/5, or 9 + 8, or 17 or less. A DEX roll with a DEX of 20 would be 9 + 20/5, or 13 or less.

There are a few examples given of how Characteristic rolls might be used. Are you falling out of a building and trying to grab a ledge to save yourself? Make a DEX roll to break your fall. Are you trying to make some sort of scientific breakthrough? Make an INT roll. Are you trying to stay stoic under torture? Make an EGO roll. There are other possibilities as well, although I have a hard time seeing where you might need to make a Comeliness roll. As with PER rolls, don't overdo them, and use common sense. If the Thing is trying to lift a bag of cement, he doesn't need to make a roll to do it.

Now we get into Movement. The very first sentence says, 'Champions is best played on a floor or tabletop.' What floor would that be? Tabletop is definitely preferred; I'm not crawling around on the floor, not at my age. Regardless, putting a map of the setting and counters or minis on it will make visualizing the combat much, much easier. Especially with superhero combat, which can have wide ranges as characters zip around the battlefield. It's not absolutely required, but it's definitely and highly recommended.

The types of movement mentioned here are running, swimming, flying, gliding, leaping, and teleporting. That pretty much covers all the basic superhero modes of movement. There's also tunneling, but that's got its own rules from the power description earlier in the book.

In general, everyone has a base movement distance depending on how they are trying to move. Everyone has 6" of running and 2" of swimming, unless they have a Physical Limitation that restricts them from doing either of those. Everyone has leaping, as well, based on their STR score. In a phase, a character can do a partial move or a full move as they choose. A full move is any distance greater than 1/2 your movement distance; for the basic 6" running, that means if you move 4", that's a full move action and you can't do anything else until your next phase unless you are doing a Move By or a Move Through combat action.

If you move 1/2 or less of your full distance, that's a partial move and you can still make an attack or some other kind of action in the phase. Most actions are listed as taking a '1/2 move' to do, including many of the combat maneuvers. The only ones that take up more than a 1/2 move are Haymaker, Kick, Move Through, and Move By. All movement costs END at a rate of 1 END per 5" of movement. Noncombat movement (we'll get to that) doesn't cost additional END.

Alright, so we start with the most basic: Ground Movement. This is your Running speed. As mentioned earlier, you start with a base of 6" per phase. If you start and end your phase out of combat, you can actually double that speed. If you enter or come out of combat in a phase, you can't use noncombat movement. To add Running speed costs 2 points per 1" of additional movement, so bumping your base running speed to 10" would cost you 8 points. Running can be pushed like a power at up to 5 extra inches of speed at an END cost of 2 points per additional inch.

Swimming is basically the same as running, except obviously you're in water, and your base speed is 2" per phase unless you buy enhanced swimming speed. In all other ways, swimming uses the same rules as running.

Flight is the next most-common means of movement for superheroes. Flight can be pushed just like any other END-using power, at a cost of 2 END per additional inch of flight speed, up to a total of 5 additional inches and 10 END. However, flying has something called a Turn Mode. This defines how often you can make a 60° turn in the air. Your character's Turn Mode is defined by your total flight distance divided by five. So when you are flying, you can make your first turn at any time in your flight path. However, once you do that first 60° turn, you can't turn any further until you have traveled a number of inches equal to your Turn Mode. So, if Starburst's flight distance for the phase is 15", his Turn Mode is 3". Starburst can start his flight phase traveling 8", then turns; he can't turn again until he has traveled an additional 3". There's a rule where you can only make a maximum of five evenly-spaced turns during a phase, and that takes us to the end of the page. What that means, though, is you can't do a full 360° turn in a single phase in the air. You can do it on the ground; ground and swimming movement have no Turn Mode.

Well, that was exciting. Another page done, and we're going to continue with movement next time. Until then, same Bat-time, same Bat-blog.

Wouldn't that be funny to see Batman writing a crimefighting blog?

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 36)

Alright, this is a short page today since the top half of the page is just artwork; if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was Foxbat (Champions fans, you know who I'm talking about). Anyway, that leaves only about half the page for the text, so this shouldn't take long.

We start with an example of Pushing a power, in this case Strength. There's a wall falling on a helpless old lady, and the unnamed hero has a STR of 40. Pushing his STR to the max will give him a STR of 50 for a brief period, hopefully enough to allow the old lady to get out of the way. The END cost for this is 8 for his normal STR of 40, plus 10 for the maximum pushing, for a total of 18 END. Worth it for the old lady, I think.

There's also a note that you can't push a power that doesn't cost END. Well, that makes sense. I can't think of any of those powers that would need to be pushed. Maybe Armor, but the rules say no.

Okay, now we get away from the physical stuff and into the psychological stuff. No, not mental combat. This is all about Presence Attacks. Let's face it, superheroes and villains make an impression. Picking up an F-150 and throwing it down the street makes an impression, too. Sometimes heroes and villains will use this impressive attribute to shake people up or make them 'ooh' and 'aah', or maybe just collapse in fear. In Champions, this is known as a Presence Attack.

Basically, a Presence Attack is an attack that requires no attack roll; everyone who witnesses the Presence Attack is affected. For every 5 points of PRE the character has, 1D6 is rolled. A surprise Presence Attack gives an additional +1D6, as does doing something violent (F-150 tossing, for example). If other unusual circumstances warrant, the GM can give additional bonuses. Total up the dice and compare it to the PRE of everyone in the vicinity. It can be assumed that normal people have a PRE of 10 to save time.

If the total of the PRE Attack is equal to or greater than the target's PRE score, the target is impressed, and hesitates long enough for the character to act ahead of them in that phase. The rules here aren't clear on whether or not a PRE Attack is actually a full phase action, although that would make sense to me. I don't remember if that was clarified in later editions, although I think it's safe to assume it was.

If the roll is at least double the target's PRE score, the target is very impressed and will hesitate for 1/2 a move; the character making the PRE Attack gets to move ahead of them in that phase.

If the roll is at least triple the target's PRE score, the target is awed and will hesitate for a full phase, being at 1/2 CV for that entire phase.

And if the roll is at least four times the target's PRE score, the target is cowed, may surrender, faint, or run away; the GM makes that call. Again, a PRE attack affects everyone in the area, not just one target. So a violent PRE Attack is a great way for a villain to get people running and screaming, the better to distract the hero.

If you try to do a second PRE attack against the same targets, it's not going to be as effective; each successive PRE attack takes a cumulative -1D6 to the roll. I guess people do get used to just about anything, don't they?

Lastly, we have Perception Rolls. These have been mentioned before, of course. But here we learn that a PER roll is for noticing things that aren't all that obvious (very useful for detectives), or to notice something going on while you are in combat. PER Rolls are always determined as 9 plus INT/5. So the average person (INT 10) will have a PER roll of 11 or less. Reed Richards, with an INT of at least 30, is going to have a minimum PER roll of 15 or less. Considering how obtuse Reed can be, that doesn't ring quite true. Nevertheless, that's where we stand. Of course, PER rolls can be improved by Enhanced Senses.

And that's it for this page. As I said, it's a short one thanks to the artwork. The next page has no art, so there will be more to talk about. Until then, may your Spider-Sense always tingle.

Let's Read Champions 1e (pg 35)

Alright, we are continuing our journey through the combat rules. There is one other damage effect that needs to be dealt with: Knockback. As mentioned on the previous page, Knockback is simply the result of being punched or blasted so hard that you go flying backward. It's a common staple of comic book battles, so of course it needs to be incorporated into these rules.

To calculate Knockback, simply roll 2D6. Subtract the result from the BODY damage done by the attack. Not the damage that got through, but the damage that was rolled. If the result is negative, there's no Knockback. If the roll is equal to the BODY damage, the target is knocked down. A positive result gives the number of inches the target is knocked back (remember, one inch equals two meters in Champions). So, Nightshade hits Blockhead with his Energy Blast and rolls 31 STUN and 9 BODY. Blockhead will shrug off most of that damage, but Nightshade then gets to roll for Knockback. Rolling 2D6, he gets a roll of 5. Subtracting 5 from 9 gives a Knockback of 4", or 8 meters.

Now, the 2D6 roll can be modified under certain circumstances. If the target is flying, you only roll 1D6 for Knockback, meaning they're far more likely to be knocked back in the air. If the target is underwater, add 1D6 to the roll. If it's a Killing Attack, add 1D6 to the roll. And if it is a Martial Arts maneuver, add 1D6 to the roll. So, if Wolverine slashes Sub-Mariner in the water, the Knockback roll will actually be 4D6, making it very unlikely that Subby will be moving at all.

Knockback can actually do damage; a character who gets knocked back into a wall or other solid upright object takes 1D6 normal damage per inch of Knockback. So, in the example above, if Nightshade's shadow blast knocks Blockhead back into a concrete wall, then Blockhead is going to take another 4D6 of normal damage. If Blockhead gets knocked back into another character, then both characters will take 4D6 damage. And Nightshade will score additional Cool points for that maneuver, assuming that Blockhead is knocked back into another villain.

No, there are no Cool points in Champions. But there should be.

However, the damage rolled for Knockback is also dependent on what the target is knocked into. If the structure has a low BODY score (we'll get to that part later), the maximum damage the Knockback victim can take is 1D6 per BODY score. If the character is knocked back more inches than the wall has BODY, then he goes through the wall and keeps on going. His Knockback distance is reduced by 1" per BODY point of the wrecked obstruction. So, if Nightshade knocks Blockhead back 11" (that's a hell of a BODY roll for him, but it is possible), and Blockhead goes through a wall with 6 BODY, he will take 6D6 damage from going through the wall, and his total Knockback is reduced to 5". If the target isn't knocked into anything and just hits the ground, he takes 1D6 per 2" of Knockback.

The Acrobatics skill can save a character from taking Knockback damage. If Crusader makes an Acrobatics roll when Ogre punches him, assuming he's conscious after getting hit, he will roll with the punch and take no damage from the ground. However, Acrobatics won't help him if he gets punched into a wall.

Flight can also reduce Knockback if the character announces that he's using some or all of his Flight inches to resist being knocked back. In that case, each inch of Flight used for resisting reduces Knockback taken by 1". Also, heavier targets (such as those under Growth or Density Increase powers) will take less Knockback (the exact amount is in the power descriptions; otherwise, it's 1" of reduction per 2x human mass of the target. So a robot that weighs 800 kg will take 3" less of Knockback due to its mass.

Got all that? Good. That covers hurting people. Next, we'll talk about how to heal. Or at least, recover from the damage that was taken. During a battle, the combatants are going to lose STUN and END (and possibly BODY as well). These are finite resources; run out of them and problems occur. Fortunately, all characters come equipped with a Recovery (REC) characteristic to help alleviate or delay those problems.

First of all, at the end of every turn (after Segment 12 is complete), everyone automatically gets a Recovery unless they are at -21 or lower STUN. For everyone else, after Segment 12 they get to add their REC score to both their STUN and END, up to their maximum scores. For example, Nightshade has a STUN of 25, an END of 50, and a REC of 10. While fighting Blockhead, he's used up 24 END and taken 9 STUN in damage. At the end of the turn, he automatically adds 10 to his END, bringing it to 36, and gets all of his STUN back, resetting it to 25. The additional STUN recovery point is wasted.

Characters can also take a breather during a fight, using one of their phases as a Recovery phase. They can't do anything else, including expending any END, and in return they get to recover STUN and END just like a normal post-Segment 12 recovery. However, during this phase their CV is 0. If a character is holding his breath for whatever reason (gas, underwater, etc.) he can't take a recovery at all, not even post-Segment 12. In fact, holding your breath costs you at least 1 END per phase. If you run out of END, then you lose 1 STUN per phase. And if you run out of STUN, you lose 1 BODY per phase until you die.

Speaking of BODY, REC also helps with that; divide your REC by 10, and that's how many BODY pips you recover per day. So, getting stabbed isn't going to be healed in just a few minutes, unless of course you have Regeneration.

Alright, now we talk about Endurance. We've already discussed it pretty thoroughly, so this is just a couple of paragraphs clarifying what we have already learned. First of all, you pay 1 END for every 5 points of power (or STR) that you use in a phase. If a power isn't used at full capacity, you don't pay the full END cost; you only pay for the amount you actually use. So, a 40-point power would cost 8 END to use at full capacity. I will note that this did get changed in a later edition (I want to say 3rd, but it might have been 4th) to 1 END per 10 points, which made a huge difference in END expenditures. Note that there are some powers that cost no END, as do all skills.

If you run out of END but need to keep fighting, you drain STUN as END. For every 2 END you are trying to use, you take 1D6 STUN damage. There's no defense against this, and you can knock yourself out by overexerting yourself.

Lastly, characters can Push their powers beyond their normal limits. This isn't easy, and it's exhausting; you can push your power up to 10 additional points (so Nightshade's shadow blast, normally 8D6, can be pushed to 10D6 if he really needs to). Each additional point costs 1 END to use, so it's not something to be done on the regular. Save Pushing for emergencies and boss fights.

And that's it for this page. We'll continue next time with additional combat rolls that might come up on occasion. Until then, my friends.