Champions Universe: News Of The World

[Steve Long]

Here’s our back-cover text describing CU:NotW:


RETURN TO THE CHAMPIONS UNIVERSE!

It’s been five years since the publication of Champions Universe, and a lot’s happened since then. Villains have come and gone, hero teams have gone through all sorts of changes, and more than one master villain has tried to take over or destroy the world. Champions Universe: News Of The World takes a look at the current state of the Champions Universe setting and lets you in on everything that’s taken place. It includes:

—reviews of events in Millennium City, Vibora Bay, and other major areas of the Champions Universe

—information on what’s been going on with the Champions

—a look at two other prominent superhero teams, the Sentinels and the Justice Squadron

—reports on the fiendish plots of the supervillains, villain teams, and master villains of the Champions Universe

—a Rogues’ Gallery and GM’s Vault containing secret, GM’s-eyes-only information about the Champions Universe, including revised and updated character sheets for many prominent villains and several all-new villains

So put on your costume and get ready to battle evil — it’s time to return to the Champions Universe!


ISBN: 1-58366-061-4
SKU: DOJHERO225
Price: $29.99 US

You can buy this book in our Online Store. (https://www.herogames.com/viewItem.htm?itemID=221291)
You can buy this PDF in our Online Store. (https://www.herogames.com/viewItem.htm?itemID=222353)

[Steve Long]

Here’s a copy of ghost-angel’s review of CU:NotW. Feel free to post other reviews, or links to them, if you like!

The Upside:

Champions Universe: News Of The World is the 2007 update of the happenings in the Champions Universe, the default Hero Games Superhero setting. It covers the happenings to both the major cities (Millennium City and Vibora Bay), gives stats for two major US Teams we haven't seen before, and updates the happenings of the rest of the world as well.

First off though, we're going to start with the cover. For those who don't follow music News Of The World is a name of a Queen album, a rather popular one at that. And the cover of that album depicts a robot holding the members of Queen. Well, the Champions Universe cover features Mechanon (the CUs premiere robot villain) holding the Champions. I like it. Any show of appreciation for good music wins me over instantly. (Though it would have been extra awesome had they named chapters after tracks from the album...)

Chapter One - Meanwhile, In Millennium City. After a very brief note on current city politics the chapter dives right into The Champions - the signature hero team of the setting. Going through the exploits of the team from the published adventures. It covers how they handled Interface (Champions Battlegrounds), The Black Paladin (Shades Of Black), King Cobra (Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth), and a dimensional crisis (Reality Storm). As well as several other exploits that didn't come from published adventures (but stem directly from Plot Seeds throughout the various books). We get updated stats for the Champions as well, plus a full write-up for one of the new members and a reference to another source book for the second. The last part dedicated to the Champions covers Nighthawk's new organization, formed after he left The Champions, Project Mongoose with two brand new heroes presented (Duke Steel and Scarlet Archer II), and new information on two previous characters (Juryrig from Vibora Bay) and a villain turned hero, Signal Ghost (from Millennium City).

A short section on other heroes covers Cavalier and another brand new hero, Hydro, who specializes in protecting Millennium Cities coast line. After that Ravenswood Academy (from Teen Champions) is covered, updating all four classes presented from the genre book, and the new incoming freshman.

Chapter Two - Down In Vibora Bay. This is a very short chapter covering recent political events in the city, a bit on how Hurricane Katrina played out in the setting and a few of the major events that occurred in Vibora Bay. The last section provides one new hero, a sidekick for Black Mask, who can be used as a street level crime fighter should you need one.

Chapter Three - The Sentinels. The chapter opens with the history of this particular superteam, which starts in 1961 with a rather convoluted story involving a super computer, nuclear missiles, and hypnotism. Like any good story should. After that we have write-ups for the six current members of the team. Bravo wins for Coolest Hero Ever, he defies the standard archetypes that most of his teammates fall into. He's a swashbuckler, possibly a gadgeteer, mostly a fantasy character way out of place, but definitely a hero.

Chapter Four - The Justice Squadron. Another New York based team, this one playing the big leagues of the CU. This six member team is nicely filled out, and powerful compared to most of the Champions Universe superteams.

Chapter Five - In Other World News. The first part covers the rest of the United States, covering in brief Super Teams in Boston (The New Paladins), California (The California Patrol), Chicago (The Peackeepers), Denver (The Alliance), Houston (The Hero Corps), Miami (The Watch), New York (Nova, previously detailed in Teen Champions), Philadelphia (The Liberty League), San Francisco (The Bay Guardians, and The Freedom Patrol), and Washington D.C. (The Capitol Patrol). With a very short section on solo heroes in the US, with one new hero, The Messenger, introduced.

The second part is Organizations. Giving an in depth update on UNTIL, a short update on The Trismegistus Council. And a new Organization for the setting, The Goodman Institute, a tip of the hat to early editions of Champions. Part three covers major events in the rest of the world. Eurostar has a new member, Singapore has a new villain team, the 2008 Beijing Olympics have been threatened by a mystical force, and the war in Iraq continues, among other events. The fourth part of this chapter covers enemy organizations and villains. ARGENT, DEMON and VIPER all get short updates on their current strengths and recent major exploits. We get updates on several master villains. Dr. Destroyer lost another island, Gravitar gets serious about this whole villainy thing, Menton has been captured, Takofanes is busy trying to capture the Crowns Of Krim and The Warlord has upgraded his powered armor. And two villains groups are highlighted, the Crowns Of Krim are lying lowing trying to avoid Takofanes and GRAB has added a new member to their ranks. A bunch of solo villains get some updated information, the most notable is that Foxbat finally had a Master Plan succeed! Inna Gadda De Foxbat! The last part of the chapter provides two new Hidden Lands, Selenus a city on the moon and Thaar a city of bird-people in the Indian ocean.

Chapter Six - The Rogue's Gallery. Divided into two parts, updated villains and new villains. Here's a list of which villains got updated character sheets: The Warlord, Anklyosaur, Anubis, The Black Paladin, Hornet, Lady Blue, The Slug, Talisman, Utility, Zephyr, and Zoran The Artificer. New Villains contains nine new enemies to the setting, many of which were mentioned earlier in the book. None of the new villains are of Master Villain level, but a few are powerful enough to take on a team of heroes.

Chapter Seven - The GMs Vault. This chapter covers even more secrets and behind the scenes plot twists in the Champions Universe. Confirming or not confirming several of the rumors, perceived truths and guesses from the first four chapters. And we get one more Hidden Land an enterprising GM can use.

The Downside:

Notably missing is any word of an update on The Motor City Defenders from Teen Champions. Which is too bad, it would have been interesting to see what happened with that group of loosely organized teen heroes, even as a side bar footnote. There's no information on the war brewing behind the scenes in Vibora Bay, I'd have expected such a possible world shaking event to get some kind of update.

Normally artwork in a gaming book doesn't even cross my mind. But I felt that the updated characters should all have had new artwork, or even just a different artists take on the same character.

The Otherside:
Being an extension of the Champions Universe setting, there isn't much use for this book for non-Hero Gamers unless you've already converted the Champions Universe sourcebooks for your own use.

The book does a good job of updating most of the major plots, and a lot of the minor plots from several sourcebooks. Even if your games CU deviates greatly from the presented setting material there's probably a good chunk of information you can use. Only six heroes get updates, but sixteen new heroes are introduced. Eleven updated villains and nine new ones can make sure your PCs don't get any downtime. At the very least this sourcebook can help enterprising GMs flesh out a lot of the goings on in the backgrounds of their campaigns, opening up new plots for the PCs to encounter.

[lapsedgamer]

This is one of my favorite Hero products of all time. I still maintain that the company could publish an update every couple of years that would cover all the nooks and crannies of the Champions Universe with buttery goodness.

[Shaft]

I just picked this up. Allow me to add my voice to chorus of approval.

[Steve Long]

I expect that we will, since books like that are easy to write and fans seem to enjoy them. Of course we'll get a bit of a "reboot" of the CU with 6E, but generally nothing too severe I'd expect, ;) and after that we can continue with regular updates, both to mirror MMO content and to provide more cool material for y'all. :hex:

[Enforcer84]

I expect that we will, since books like that are easy to write and fans seem to enjoy them. Of course we'll get a bit of a "reboot" of the CU with 6E, but generally nothing too severe I'd expect, ;) and after that we can continue with regular updates, both to mirror MMO content and to provide more cool material for y'all. :hex:
Only small changes...like the villainous mastermind Dr. Armadillo!

[Vondy]

Of course we'll get a bit of a "reboot" of the CU with 6E...

Crisis of Infinate Champions!
Champions: Civil War!
Champions: One Year Later!
Champions: MAX! Imprint.

[shakes villainous gauntlet]

I hate you Steve Long! I hate you! :D

[Steve Long]

I hate you Steve Long! I hate you!

Then my work here is done! :eg:

[Shaft]

Crisis of Infinite Champions!

Hmmm: a parrallel "earth" where it's still the 80s and all the first edition characters are the main heroes/villains? Crusader before he went Dark Champions? Starburst? A far more eloquent Ogre who had an 8 INT? :D

Champions: Civil War!

A harsh split occurs between Seeker(!) and Defender over registration. Defender tries to arrest everyone who doesn't want to register. Seekeer gets killed randomly and stupidly. Everyone in Project Mongoose stays underground and refuses to register even though their IDs are already known. Kinetik reveals his ID to the world, but the devil pulls a it never happened in exchange for him giving up the years he spent with his wife and the existence of their mawwiage (I don't remember her either. I guess it worked).


Champions: One Year Later!

Digital Hero returns in an awesome new weekly format? :D


Champions: MAX! Imprint.

Steve Long plays his own Blue Moon Killer character for the HERO boards to see... in colour! Rated M for Mature due to graphic violence.

[Killer Shrike]

I'll add my mark of approval to this supplement. Its fun, has some really cool stuff in it, and I enjoyed reading it. It's "just right"...

[bubba smith]

Hmmm: a parrallel "earth" where it's still the 80s and all the first edition characters are the main heroes/villains? Crusader before he went Dark Champions? Starburst? A far more eloquent Ogre who had an 8 INT? :D



i like this idea