Champions?

[Mark Taylor]

How useful is Champions likely to be to a non-superhero gamer? Basically I'm collecting all the Star HERO and Fantasy HERO stuff and I'm wondering how useful or relevant Champions is likely to be (if at at all) in other genres. It strikes me that as one of the basic genre books it's got to contain rules material that isn't in the others, but is it likey to be at all useful?

[Vondy]

I've found hero works great for modern settings where you don't have to do extensive write ups before play begins: military, espionage, pulp, martial arts, detectives, and whatnot. It also works extremely well for low or mundane fantasy and hard science fiction.

 

It does high fantasy and space opera just fine, but I've found that it takes a lot of ramp up work unless you decide to use their pregenerated campaign materials - due to the need to develope a well fleshed out magic system, space ships, and the like.

 

I flipped through a friends copy of fantasy hero and thought it looked good, though for me, because I know how to run a fantasy game, the grimiore or a campaign book I could tweak to fit my campaign would be more useful.

 

Star Hero was much the same. Were I to run a science fiction game I would buy a setting book instead of the genre book.

[Mark Taylor]

Originally posted by D-Man

Star Hero was much the same. Were I to run a science fiction game I would buy a setting book instead of the genre book.

 

I got HERO originally to run a high-powered sci-fi campaign, so I already have FREd and Star Hero (and it looks great)... just wondering more about the usefulness of the Champions genre book in other genres?

 

I run multiple genres and I've been using GURPS for a long time, but found it somewhat lacking for higher powered campaigns.

[Solomon]

I am very partial to any book written by Aaron Allston, one of my favourite game writers. "Champions" is a good product, but it's strictly a genre book and might not be exactly what you're looking for. It does include some GM advice you might find useful even in a non-superheroic setting (such as the "Mood and Meta-genre" section), but you'll probably be getting more mileage out of Star HERO books.

[Mark Taylor]

To expand - The backgrounds I'm planning to run with HERO are of my own making, so I'm very much aware that it's going to take a lot of prep work no matter which system I use. I do this kind of thing with GURPS on a regular basis, but I got HERO System near the beginning of this year with the intention of using it for higher-powered campaigns. I have no problem with GURPS for lower-powered games but when you ramp up the power level it starts to show the strain in ways that would be hard to fix without causing far too many knock-on effects. I've currently started planning "Robot Hero" which will be almost certainly my first HERO campaign. I'm not that likely to run actual superhero campaigns, what I am really asking is whether the Champions genre book is likely to be useful in other genres.

[Mark Taylor]

Originally posted by Solomon

I am very partial to any book written by Aaron Allston, one of my favourite game writers. "Champions" is a good product, but it's strictly a genre book and might not be exactly what you're looking for. It does include some GM advice you might find useful even in a non-superheroic setting (such as the "Mood and Meta-genre" section), but you'll probably be getting more mileage out of Star HERO books.

 

Thanks dude.

[Lord Liaden]

I would say that the usefulness of the Champions genre book to a sci-fi campaign would depend entirely on whether you want to use the conventions of superheroic campaigns (personal Powers, paying for equipment, high Characteristics, Knockback et al) in your campaign, either by introducing super characters or using some of these conventions for mecha combat and the like.

 

Champions emphasizes simulating the style, conventions and "bits" from classic comic-book superheroes; that's the thrust of its information, guidelines and pre-generated stuff. While any of the other genres can contribute to a supers campaign, since comics incorporate so many diverse influences, IMO the reverse is not as true.

 

If what you want is a "straight" science fiction game, I'd recommend giving Champions a pass.

[Mark Taylor]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

If what you want is a "straight" science fiction game, I'd recommend giving Champions a pass.

 

I expect that my first campaign at least isn't going to be that "straight" science fiction, I'm going to throw in a lot of weird and dark elements. I think you've read some of my thread on the Robots campaign.

 

As for the ABC Warriors strip which I want to capture at least some of the feel of, it did have some element of superheroishness to it, but the main characters were far more "morally ambiguous" shall we say.

[TheEmerged]

I know I'm in the minority, but personally I was underwhelmed with it. The characters needed correcting, I knew most of the genre material, several of the example items/powers were troubling (one was reprinted in my campaign handout as an example of why I was house-ruling megascale), and there was really only one chart I found useful and I ended up remaking one specific to my campaign.

 

Your mileage may vary -- mine certainly did.

[Farkling]

My mileage varied also. The Champions book is very comic book Silver by my standards, and only gives a nod to Galactic or Dark worlds. It has more decriptives in it relevant to WW2 (Golden Age) than it does to dark/wierd modern settings.

 

You could probably afford to give it a pass...it's mostly a tour de force of the different genres, adn I think it lost a little for that.

 

Go visit your local game store and flip through a copy...make your own decision. That's why I bought Star Hero...I flipped through a copy, and then got a smokin' deal on it. So far I'm impressed with Star Hero. I was lukewarm from the Champions book.

[zornwil]

I think it's debatable, I'm not sure. I think it's a worthwhile read with a number of interesting ideas. It may have some inspiring quality, but I wouldn't say it's essential at all.