Dark Champions: The Animated Series

[Steve Long]

Here’s our back-cover text describing DC:TAS:

 

 

DARK AVENGERS OF THE NIGHT

 

If you’re eager for the thrills and adventure of crimefighting but don’t like the guns and violence of regular Dark Champions campaigns, what you need is an “animated series” style campaign. Dark Champions: The Animated Series looks at the less grim side of vigilante crimebusting: caped crusaders with vigilante style but who refuse to kill; low-powered superheroes who fight street crime instead of world-threatening supervillains; “theme” villains with clever costumes and psychotic minds.

 

Dark Champions: The Animated Series includes:

 

—a discussion of the “animated series” subgenre in general, including advice about character creation, roleplaying, and gamemastering

 

—the Hudson City Knights campaign, in which costumed (but not superpowered) crimefighters take on a host of twisted villains who plan their crimes around strange themes or obsessions: Penny Dreadful, Adonis, Anagram, the Missing Link, Raptor, and more

 

—the Hudson City Powers campaign, which pits low-powered (“street-level”) superheroes against similarly low-powered supervillains — costumed criminals like Carnivore, Guillotine, Rhapsody, Serpentine, and more

 

Featuring 29 new villains and six new NPC heroes, Dark Champions: The Animated Series is just the thing to bring even more fun and excitement to your Dark Champions games!

 

 

ISBN: 1-58366-049-6

SKU: DOJHERO603

Price: $26.99 US

 

You can buy this book in our Online Store.

You can buy this PDF in our Online Store.

[Steve Long]

Re: Dark Champions: The Animated Series

 

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

 

The Upside:

 

Dark Champions: The Animated Series is a sourcebook to give player and campaign information to run one of two types of games. First is a non-violent, almost classic T.V. Vigilante (think Adam West Batman series) type game. The Second is a low-powered superhero game. It's divided into three chapters for reference.

 

Chapter One: The Animated Series Genre. This chapter looks at "The Animated Series" as a whole. The various genre tropes that should be looked at, some specific things you want to avoid to keep in genre, and generally all the stuff you need to run a more lighthearted and fun Dark Champions/Vigilante game. Unfortunately it's also a very short chapter without a lot of detail and very few examples and specific references. If you're not familiar with the genre beyond a passing glance the chapter doesn't really help you that much.

 

Chapter Two: Hudson City Knights. This chapter takes a look at the classic "Animated Series" type campaign. Themed villains, wacky capers and good old fashioned POW! BAM! type fun. Well, the first two pages do that at least. The next forty-eight pages are nothing but character writeups. And while character writeups can help you get an idea of what a hero or villain in this genre look like, they aren't always the best source on how to get the feel of the genre down from a This Is How To Run A Game point of view.

 

Chapter Three: Hudson City Powers. This chapter goes over running a low leveled super-hero style game. This is the closest to the classic fourth edition Dark Champions that the current system has gotten. Again, two pages describe the genre itself as Supers with a single schtick, or a very low level of ability, fighting street crime - not world busting crime as described in the Champions setting. After that we get forty pages of character writeups (both good guys and bad guys).

 

But the book isn't without it's strong points. I don't know any GM who doesn't occasionally need or mind the help of a decently written and creative adversary for their Players. And Dark Champions: The Animated Series comes with thirty such villains. Sixteen in Chapter 2 and fourteen in Chapter 3. If you're familiar with the genre and need some bad guys to flesh out your world this book has a good creative selection of them to choose from.

 

The Downside:

 

This is, unfortunately, not a very good introduction to the "Animated Series" style genre. If you're familiar with the style - non-violent vigilante or low-level super-heroes - it's a good book for some brief information to get the feel.

 

Also there is no bibliography. There are a few brief mentions in the sparse text regarding some of the source material. But there's no good list of stuff that illustrates what this genre is about.

 

It makes several references to the Dark Champions sourcebook, which is appropriate as there's no need to reprint a lot of information. But the notes on making those references "Animated Series" specific are sparse at best. The book could do with some concrete examples to showcase why this genre is different from a normal Dark Champions genre game.

 

All this brings us to - what would have made this book a better resource on running these two similar genres? I would have reduced the number of character writeups and written a short adventure for each genre. Pre-written adventures by someone who knows the genre (such as the Author of a genre book) are an excellent way to Show The Genre (instead of just Telling The Genre) to prospective GMs and Players alike. A quick run through scenario would have done wonders to help this book out.

 

The Otherside:

 

Unfortunately, this book doesn't offer very much for non-Hero players. With twenty pages of non-system specific information it lacks juicy genre information.

 

If you're already familiar with "Animated Series" type games as a genre, this is a good sourcebook for both NPCs and some general advice on running such games. If you're not very familiar, or not familiar at all, with the genre the book isn't as much of a help as I would have liked.

 

So what is an "Animated Series" genre game like? Is it just a vigilante game without the blood, cursing and a sparse application of gritty realism? Or is there something more to capturing the feel of the genre? The book doesn't do as good a job of answered that question as I would have liked. Especially since I'm not completely familiar with the genre myself.

[bubba smith]

Re: Dark Champions: The Animated Series

 

have any supliments been made ,or willl there be?

[Steve Long]

Re: Dark Champions: The Animated Series

 

We don't have any plans to publish any more DC:TAS material at this time.

[bubba smith]

Re: Dark Champions: The Animated Series

 

We don't have any plans to publish any more DC:TAS material at this time.

thank you sir

[bubba smith]

Re: Dark Champions: The Animated Series

 

i just got a copy of DC-TAS and enjoyed reading it i like the character heavy hitter you could mix this with ninja hero to do campains on animated martial artists such as the golden dragon fom legend of the dragon or the tmnt

[Glupii]

Re: Dark Champions: The Animated Series

 

I have just read over DC:TAS for the first time and I have to say I like the whole concept of a very cut and dried campaign where I, as a gm, do not have to worry about some things an dlet the story tell itself, where I do not have to worry about all the realism of how folks will perceive a character because...well, they are Heroes. I have players that I do not worry about taking advantage of that. And I think it could be fun playing. But the review states the lack of resources for such a campaign but gives no examples either. Can someone recommend some resources to someone who is really unsure exactly what all the TAS style is? The only thing I am seeing so far is something like the new Capt. America movie. (I was even thinking of setting this campaign in post WW2 like around 1949 due to its influence) I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this.

[The Main Man]

Re: Dark Champions: The Animated Series

 

I have just read over DC:TAS for the first time and I have to say I like the whole concept of a very cut and dried campaign where I' date=' as a gm, do not have to worry about some things an dlet the story tell itself, where I do not have to worry about all the realism of how folks will perceive a character because...well, they are Heroes. I have players that I do not worry about taking advantage of that. And I think it could be fun playing. But the review states the lack of resources for such a campaign but gives no examples either. Can someone recommend some resources to someone who is really unsure exactly what all the TAS style is? The only thing I am seeing so far is something like the new Capt. America movie. (I was even thinking of setting this campaign in post WW2 like around 1949 due to its influence) I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this.[/quote']

Batman... The Animated Series.