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Does Champions need an intro campaign book?


Fedifensor

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This question arises out of a thread on RPGnet: Is "Champions Complete" Keeping The Game Alive?

 

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?775575-Hero-System-Is-quot-Champions-Complete-quot-Keeping-The-Game-Alive

 

Champions Complete did a good job of condensing the needed rules into a single volume, but it doesn't have the tools a new GM needs to start a campaign. It only has 5 villains, and they aren't really beginner-friendly writeups - whoever thought Shrinker's writeup was a good idea for a beginner book needs to rethink their approach. What a new GM needs is some material to work from - VIPER agents, a few super villains, and a super villain team that is suitable for a beginning group to fight.

 

An introductory campaign book, preferably with VIPER as the centerpiece, would fill this need. Have the first section be advice on how to create heroes, and have several pregen, SIMPLE characters filling the classic archetypes (Brick, Martial Artist, etc)*. Don't use complicated powers, flexible multipower slots, or Variable Power Pools. That gives the GM the ability to hand out characters, or at least have generic heroes the players can use as examples when making their own.

 

The rest of the book should be a series of linked scenarios. Start with a scenario that has options for doubling as an shared origin, in case the GM wants to have the characters all get their powers from the same place (VIPER experimentation?). As the players hunt down the villains over multiple scenarios, each encounter can introduce new elements. Maybe the first scenario is just an agent fight, then later VIPER has a super villain like Brick with the agents, and eventually the group fights an entire super villain team. Include noncombat challenges as well, where the heroes have to use their skills and wits to uncover VIPER's nefarious plot.

 

 

* This is one of the things Mutants and Masterminds did right, with their archetypes in the core book.

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Honestly, I think a product akin to the Pathfinder Beginner Box would be a great idea for Champions. Maybe call it Champions Origins or something. It could include some basic ideas on character generation, include a handful of archetypes, three adventures, a double-sided map and some standees of all the characters involved. Personally, I would split the books into Character Basics and Gamemaster Basics. Don't delve too heavily into the maneuvers or gritty bits of the game, just the basics of combat, how to count dice and maybe ideas on advancement. Ideally, all the material would be in full-color and the archetypes would have gender options (along with the art and standees). 

If Kickstarted, maybe some additional adventures could be made along with packs of additional bad guys and heroes for use in either Champions Complete or Champions Origins.

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Oh yeah, I backed that about 5 minutes after it went live! Not yet clear (to me anyway) how much of of an "intro" book it's going to be, but sure looking forward to it.

 

Is Champions Universe no longer available?

CU is a good setting book IMO, but it is written as a detailed world in which experienced Champions GMs can create our own adventures, which means some assembly is still required. There are no ready-to-play PCs (in fact most of the sample heroes are 600+ points!) and there are no scenarios. An intro book needs to have some stuff ready to run out of the box, so newbies can pick it up and get to the fun stuff with minimal time investment.

 

I like the idea of a series of linked adventures, similar to what Savage Worlds does with their campaign books - a series of fairly simple adventures you can run as-is with minimal prep, or can use as a starting point and modify to taste.

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Is Champions Universe no longer available?

 

 

 

The PDF of Champions Universe 6E is also available from the Hero Games website store, for less: http://www.herogames.com/forums/store/product/39-champions-universe-6th-ed-pdf/

 

Interestingly, the Hero store also still has the PDF of the 5E version of CU: http://www.herogames.com/forums/store/product/495-champions-universe-5th-ed-pdf/ .  For the most part they duplicate each other, but each has some material that doesn't appear in the other.

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I would love to see something like Pinnacle does for Savage Worlds, and have One book Plot Point Campaigns. That would have a whole campaign including side quests. Include any NPCs, and have a free download that has figure flats (or paid for ones), Free DL of Sample Characters, Paid Full size maps etc. It's a great model that allows a GM pick up the book read the plot and start playing with little to no effort at all. If they want to customize then they can do that too.

 

Hero is a great Toolbox game system. We are in an era where most players and GM's don't really care about the toolbox. They just want to be able to play.

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Thinking about a "plug and play" book...

 

Character generation could be a choice between "pick one and there you go" full characters, a set of templates/archetypes, plus a bunch of plug in options that could be used to modify the others or to create "original" characters. Maybe some "Mad Libs" type origin templates to help people learn how to create character backgrounds. Character outlines, including some partly filled out.

 

Base these on popular characters with the serial numbers filed off. Some of the more powerful ones wouldn't be suitable for this, since they would need to be balanced against each other. Use simple builds, obviously.

 

Ready to play scenarios would be a must. Perhaps a majorish badguy with superpowered lackies/allies, agents and mooks. This would avoid the need to use CU intellectual property - the agents would be VIPER agents without serial numbers, etc.

 

A pick a paragraph solo adventure would be good too, allowing players (and novice GMs!) to learn to use the system.

 

A simple character sheet format - perhaps akin to that used in the early edition character books. Nothing longer than a single page, including art and background.

 

Some civilian NPCs, suitable for use as DNPCs, rivals and generally as stock characters.

 

Add some GMing advice, and there you go.

 

Keep it as short as possible, to minimise tl;dr.

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They could update and expand Mob Rule from BBB.

Viper's Nest from earlier editions would be preferable, at least in my opinion (and is almost described in one of the posts above).

 

Much like Champions Complete, this could be a standard-size book incorporating a larger, multi-part adventure, with some pre-fab characters for those not wishing to make their own, and providing a "CU Lite" providing a framework setting, a number of villain and NPC write-ups. The adventure would be designed to showcase the Hero System rules, and would use some, if not all, of the NPC's and setting locations provided in the "CU Lite" section.

 

Want more? The last few pages can describe the Villains books, the CU books and the full Hero System books.

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A simple character sheet format - perhaps akin to that used in the early edition character books. Nothing longer than a single page, including art and background.

Amen - a simple character sheet geared towards playing the character rather than building the character would go a long way towards helping new players get in the groove.

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I found Viper's Nest after some diligent searching.  It was copyright 1982, so this is really old-school.  However, the adventures in it hold up, and it could easily be modified into an introductory Champions campaign.

 

The three adventures in the book are as follows:

* Assault On The Tanghai Tower - Experimental superconductor stolen by Nazi agents was hidden in the cornerstone of a building now scheduled for demolition.  Takes place on the demolition site, with a base team of 4 Assault agents. 

* Combat In Christopher Park - VIPER agent has gone AWOL and plans to go to UNTIL.  The meeting between the ex-VIPER agent and the UNTIL agent takes places in Christopher Park.  VIPER plans to capture both men, and sends a base team of 4 Undercover agents.

* Cleaning Out The VIPER's Nest - Having found out the location of the VIPER's nest, the heroes lead an assault to break VIPER's hold upon the city.  Their goals are to 1) capture the crystal communications link to VIPER's central Serpentine computer, 2) capture the Nest Leader, 3) capture the supervillains, and 4) capture the VIPER agents.  The nest has a LOT of agents - to give you an idea of how big this is, UNTIL (if cooperating with the heroes) sends 100 agents (with only 10 or 20 around the heroes at any one time).

 

If I were doing an introductory campaign book, I would use the VIPER's Nest scenarios, but start with an added scenario called Escape from VIPER.  The setup is that VIPER has a lab (separate from the Nest, for security reasons) where they conduct human experiments (like they did on Ogre).  If doing a shared origin, the heroes are test subjects that have the opportunity to escape during a power malfunction.  Otherwise, heroes learn the location of the lab and move in to shut it down.  You can also mix and match, with some heroes being test subjects that choose to side with the other heroes when the attack happens.  Information that one of the test subjects overheard leads into the second adventure (Assault on the Tanghai Tower).

 

So, the overall setup of the book is as follows:

  • Chapter 1 - How to Run a Champions Campaign
  • Chapter 2 - Sample Heroes - one each of Brick, Energy Projector, Martial Artist, Powered Armor, Speedster, and (for more experienced players) Mystic.  Include suggestions on how to modify each sample hero (changing the energy used by the Energy Projector from fire to ice, for example).
  • Chapter 3 - Character Creation Tips - tips on how to make characters that meet campaign guidelines (Rule of X, etc)
  • Chapter 4 - Adventures (Escape from VIPER, Assault on the Tanghai Tower, Combat in Christopher Park, Cleaning Out the VIPER's Nest). 
  • Chapter 5 - NPC Writeups (UNTIL agents, VIPER agents, Nest Leader, Brick, Bluejay, Cheshire Cat, Dragonfly, Howler, Icicle)
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Tying in a conversation on this thread: one way to approach this would be to pre-build everything without showing all the advantages/limitations/math behind it. Basically I'm thinking more like a long list of Talents than the scratch-built Powers we're all used to, and then include a section on "Once you've mastered the basics, here's how to roll your own."I realize this is total Hero heresy, but I think it might help new players get up and running sooner. 

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Making it compatible with the Basic book is problematic, due to all the good stuff they intentionally left out of Basic. But I agree with the rest.

I think with the price of Champions Complete, Basic might be a dead horse

However since the intent is to have simple design builds, you can mine Enemies I & II for villian designs (and rename them if need be) that would work for Basic. I can only think of some powers that would need to be built differently for Basic and that would be HA with autofire (or other advantages).

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