5E Fantasy HERO Settings

[Cloppy Clip]

I've been taking a look at some 5E Champions material that wasn't updated to the new edition and there's been a lot of great finds so far. As I understand it, the Fantasy HERO and Star HERO lines are part of the Champions timeline (Fantasy set long in the past and Star in between Champions and Galactic Champions), so I thought it would be worthwhile taking a look at some of those books, but I'm not sure which ones to focus on. If I start with Fantasy HERO, since I believe Takofanes originates in one of these settings and he's always been a fun concept, which books would be part of the greater Champions universe?

 

The potential hits I can see looking through the Wikipedia article are the Turakian Age, Valdorian Age, Atlantean Age and Tuala Morn, along with Monsters, Minions & Marauders and Nobles, Knights & Necromancers. Does anybody have a good breakdown of how these books fit together and what a good reading order might be?

[greypaladin_01]

While 5e had all the setting books as part of the same timeline, there is ultimately very little true crossover that goes all theway through.  But to answer your questions on what I do know  (or at least remember)

 

Turakin Age:  high fantasy time.  setting book
Valdorian Age:  sword and sorcery conan type setting book

Monster, Minions & Nobles:  fantasy game enemies book.. for Turakian age i think

 

hope that helps

[Cloppy Clip]

It's something to start with, so that's a great help! And was the crossover mostly little fragments here and there, then? That's a little bit of a shame, as I was looking forward to seeing if I could spot any references, but it does make sense that you don't want your customers to feel bullied into buying 30 other books to understand the one they're holding.

[greypaladin_01]

It was mostly just little things to be honest.... they kept things pretty separate overall.   Just a few references here and there to things on the side.   at least what I remember.   But still is some good stuff in there overall

[Lord Liaden]

The various Hero published fantasy settings, and the subgenres they represent, include, chronologically:

 

The Turakian Age: D&D-esque high fantasy, to the point of including most of the familiar races, character classes, and conventions from that game, translated to Hero System; but still with a number of distinctive elements. The eponymous setting book is the primary source for the lengthy and detailed history and timeline, major races, extensive geopolitical breakdown, races, cultures, religions, and distinctive magic from that era. Most of the company's additional 5E fantasy gaming supplements use TA as their default reference for where things and people are drawn from, including the Fantasy Hero Grimoire(s) (magic spells), Nobles, Knights, And Necromancers (NPCs), Monsters, Minions, And Marauders (creatures and races), and Enchanted Items (um, that).

 

As you noted, Takofanes comes from that age, in fact it takes its name from his as a living being, Kal-Turak the Ravager of Men. The Crowns of Krim (the artifacts, not their wearers -- see Champions Villains Volume Two: Villain Teams) also originate then and there, as do a very few other official items and locations in the modern world. As rich and entertaining as those fantasy books are, they don't really add much to your understanding of the legacy of the age on Champions Earth.

 

(BTW if you're interested in what TA is all about, you can follow the link in my signature to an extensive discussion of it.)

 

The Valdorian Age: Follows the magical cataclysm that destroyed TA and reshaped the surface of the planet. This simulates the conventions of such sword-and-sorcery source material as Howard's Conan, Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, and Moorcock's Elric, sometimes almost explicitly. Non-humans are very much in decline. Magic is rare and difficult and dangerous to practice, reflected in Hero System builds. Almost everything revealed about VA is in the self-named campaign book, which actually uses up a great deal of its space detailing the city of Elweir, this world's analogue to Lankhmar/Greyhawk/Waterdeep. The rest of the region of the globe called Il-Ryveras is treated more sketchily.

 

Almost nothing is officially asserted as surviving from VA into the present day, although there's a strong implication that the Lemurian race originated in that time and place.

 

The Atlantean Age: Set on the rest of the globe away from Il-Ryveras, and after the Valdorian Age has passed into history, this setting is inspired by Classical Greek myth and culture, and Plato's writings about Atlantis. The power level is about as high as fantasy gets without becoming superheroes, with world-shaking magic and demigod heroes. The default start date is when the Dominion of Atlantis is the dominant global power, although the Empire of Lemuria is its greatest rival and threat. Again, almost all the info about this Age is in this book, although it is pretty substantial.

 

This era probably has more survivals on modern Champions Earth than any other, as remnants of Atlantis and Lemuria persist as undersea realms, and quite a few published characters are derived from them. However, to understand the modern lands and peoples, rather than buying AA you'd be better served purchasing Hidden Lands, a 5E book which goes into considerable detail about both present-day Lemuria and Atlantis, as well as several other regions of Champions Earth off the beaten path.

 

Tuala Morn: This is one of the lands that arose after yet another magical cataclysm ended the Atlantean Age. Tuala Morn is a large region of a major island essentially fusing Great Britain with Ireland. Its basis is Celtic myth and folklore, synthesizing the cultures, creatures, and legends of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Implicitly this is where those cultures and legends originated. Tuala Morn is part of a sort of fantasy Europe predating recorded history, which was geologically unstable and ultimately collapsed, wiping out those lands.

 

I'm aware of only two things from Tuala Morn stated to have carried over into modern times. The supernatural fear-demon called Samhain (Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains) is asserted to be a corrupted form of the legendary Wild Huntsman from Celtic legend, who was active on Tuala Morn. TM is also the earliest reference to the powerful enchanted Basilisk Orb once possessed by DEMON and Luther Black (see DEMON: Servants Of Darkness), although in those ancient days it seemed to display none of the malevolent influence over minds and hearts that it has more recently.

Edited June 8, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[Cloppy Clip]

Very comprehensive, Lord Liadan, thank you! I don't actually mind too much if there's no references to Champions in the Fantasy HERO material. I just think that, if these different settings are all part of one greater meta-universe, I'll get a more complete understanding of it by reading about the different eras. Out of curiosity, were stats for Kal-Turak ever published? It'd be interesting to see how a Champions master villain would work in a lower-powered heroic setting.

[Lord Liaden]

Nope, no stats for Kal-Turak pre-Takofanes. He wasn't intended as a foe the PCs could ever confront directly, any more than Sauron was. Steve Long, former Hero Games Line Developer, suggested that any FH group which wanted to fight Kal-Turak should base him on Takofanes' write-up. The Atlantean Age does stat up a similar threat, the terrible monster Sharna-Gorak the Destroyer who brought about the end of the Age; but as I said, that campaign setting allows for very high-powered PCs.

 

If you want to see how the whole world/timeline hangs together, and what the constants are assumed to be, Steve Long wrote a six-page PDF, "The Hero Universe," which delineates exactly that. It was originally offered for free on this website, and while it's no longer here, I saved it and will Attach it below. It was published before most other Hero setting books were written, and a few details were changed or added from what it lays out due to decisions for those books, notably a couple of pan-history bloodlines which were never implemented, and proposed books covering historical eras which were never written. But otherwise the booklet paints a clear albeit abbreviated picture of the ground rules for the universe, and the various eras and the genres and game style they were intended for.

 

 

Hero Universe.pdf

Edited June 8, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[DShomshak]

Going the other direction chronologically, the various alien races that interacted with Earth in the Superheroic Era are still around at the time of the Terran Empire. The Terran Empire setting book includes package deals for Perseids, Hzeel, and even Malvans. A sidebar on pages 44 and 45 lists the various attempted invasions of Earth in the Superheroic Era, and what happened to those races afterward. There's also a Church of the Infinite Dark that worships certain Kings of Edom, though of course they do not truly understand what they worship.

 

Some of this material might be useful if you want to send your Champions PCs out into the Galaxy, though Champions Beyond is the supplement that deals with this possibility most directly.

 

Unofficially, IIRC the Digital Hero magazine published a STAR Hero scenario where the McGuffin was the Helmet of Doctor Destroyer -- still dangerous, centuries after his death.

 

I don't remember Alien Wars well enough to say anything about that period's overlap with the Superheroic Era, though I presume the various aliens are all around and mentioned.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

Descendants of James "Defender" Harmon are prominent figures and forces for good during the Alien Wars, Terran Empire, and Galactic Champions eras. In fact James Harmon's great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were notable adventurers in the Victorian, Pulp, and Golden Ages, respectively.

 

So I guess Steve Long shifted the bloodline concept elsewhere.

 

(I once joked on these forums that one of Hero's fantasy settings should have an NPC called "Har-Mon the Defender.")

Edited June 8, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[Lord Liaden]

53 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

I don't remember Alien Wars well enough to say anything about that period's overlap with the Superheroic Era, though I presume the various aliens are all around and mentioned.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

Some of the aliens mentioned in the present day in Champions Beyond are either not mentioned in future books, or explicitly noted as being extinct in the future. Whereas a very few are brought up which aren't in CB.

[Lord Liaden]

One distinct difference in present continuity versus that in the published books, is that during the year 2020 in the latter, as the result of a major event, all the "ambient magic" in the world, and the galaxy, faded away. Magic was not only responsible for the presence of spell casters and supernatural creatures, but "loosened" physical laws enough to enable the existence of superhuman powers in general. Thus all such powers disappeared, not to be seen again until the year 3000, when another event released magic back into the galaxy. The waxing and waning of ambient magic has been one major cause for the divisions between the various epochs in Earth's history.

 

Note that this time-line was first publicized by Hero Games back in 2002. I'm sure Steve Long, Darren Watts, et al expected that if they were still publishing Champions Universe supplements eighteen years later, they could find a way to revise the time-line then.

[Cloppy Clip]

Now that's an interesting tidbit. I didn't know the switchover from superheroes to science-fiction happened so close to the present day. Has this 2020 date been retconned, or is the Champions universe now divergent with real life in more ways than the obvious addition of superpowers? And, if it has been retconned, when does the changeover happen: is it when 6E was published, or sometime after that; and are the older books still compatible with current continuity outside of this change, or are there more changes lurking beneath the surface?

 

Sorry, that's a lot of questions, so don't feel rushed to answer them all. Thank you very much folks for explaining this.

[Lord Liaden]

Hey, you ask, we answer. We love showing off what we know.

 

The Champions Universe has always followed real-world events fairly closely. Every major event that has really happened is reflected on Champs Earth, although the presence of supers may have changed the details, e.g. there were far fewer deaths due to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina as a result of superheroic intervention. There are also the obvious major elements added to the world for specific purposes, such as the fictional cities of Vibora Bay and Hudson City, and of course the Battle of Detroit which resulted in the creation of Millennium City. Certain events which were set up in published books to have occurred before the present date aren't alluded to in later books, mainly because those books deal with different subjects. The most notable of those is the apotheosis scheme by Luther Black, the leader of DEMON, which was set to occur in 2012. What really happened, and the status of DEMON subsequently, is still unrevealed.

 

The latest Champions Universe setting book, Institute for Human Advancement: Pride And Prejudice, is copyright 2022; although the included history of the group's activities ends at 2019. That may have been intentional to continue to allow for the "magic goes away" crisis, or just a coincidence. I think it's probably practical to just ignore that crisis date when using the Champions Universe.

 

After Cryptic Studios, the creators of the Champions Online MMORPG, bought the rights to the Champions IP, they mandated a few changes to the timeline to match what they wanted to do in the game. They're mostly reflected in the latest-published Fifth Edition books, and in those for Sixth Edition. The timeline is practically unchanged up to 2001, but subsequent events follow Cryptic's guidelines. The biggest change is that Albert Zerstoiten, the true Dr. Destroyer, did not make his public return in 2002 as in the 5E books. Instead it was Cryptic's creation, Shadow Destroyer, masquerading as DD. But not all things in Champions Online were translated to the tabletop game's setting, usually at the request of Hero Games. For example, the scientist who would become the master villain King Cobra underwent a different origin in CO, and King Cobra and his COIL organization don't exist there; but Hero Games kept them in the setting and timeline.

[Cloppy Clip]

I think I've seen a video on YouTube about the MMO; it looked interesting, but it seemed to have a low population that kind of defeats the social aspect of the game. Didn't know that things like Shadow Destroyer came from Champions Online, so thanks for that tidbit. I don't know how clear-cut things are, but is there a dividing line for 5E Champions books that sorts them into pre-Cryptic and post-Cryptic if I wanted to look at the differences between them? It would be nice and simple (and so possibly too much to hope for!) if everything after DOJHERO225 was in the MMO-affected timeline, for example.

16 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

The most notable of those is the apotheosis scheme by Luther Black, the leader of DEMON, which was set to occur in 2012. What really happened, and the status of DEMON subsequently, is still unrevealed.

5E didn't last until 2012, right? So if I didn't feel the need to play in the present day, I could set the current year of the campaign to 2009, or whenever they stopped publishing 5E books, and play forward from there. Were there any other big milestones that we caught up to in the real world to watch out for? Or was DEMON's apotheosis the big one?

 

Thanks again for your insight; there's a lot to take in, but I suppose that's par for the course with a setting as vast as this!

[Lord Liaden]

5 hours ago, Cloppy Clip said:

 

 

Were there any other big milestones that we caught up to in the real world to watch out for?

 

 

I'm afraid I don't quite parse this sentence. Would you mind rephrasing to clarify what you mean?

[Cloppy Clip]

Sorry, I'm muddling myself. So, back in 5E, the setting was building up to future events like Luther Black's apotheosis in 2012 and the disappearance of magic in 2020, right? We're now in 2023, so a modern-day Champions game has to either change the timeline so these events are still in the future, ignore them and decide nothing came of them, or have them have happened in the past leaving the fallout for the players to deal with. What I'm wondering is, are there any other big events that were being built up to, that would now be set in the past and need to be addressed in a modern-day Champions?

 

Hope that's a bit clearer. I have a bad habit from university of vomiting words out without thinking them through so much: great stuff when you need to get an essay out in time, but not so helpful when the writing wants to actually make sense!

[Lord Liaden]

Interesting question. Let me answer that one first before segueing to the rest of your original inquiry.

 

The biggest event the 5E books were building towards, that didn't materialize, was a major invasion of Earth by the alien Hzeel. In the official future timeline, the repulsion of that invasion so weakened the Hzeel that their enemies the Dorvalans (aka Perseids, the people of the Champions team member Ironclad) were able to attack and destroy the Hzeel homeworld. When Cryptic Studios bought the IP they decided they wanted to develop the Gadroon and Qularr, who until then had been little more than mentions in CU history, as renewed invaders of Earth, so as of last publication the Hzeel were still observing to determine the outcome of their hostilities.

 

The 6E sourcebook for all things Istvatha V'han, Book Of The Empress (published 2011) describes her second (failed) invasion of Earth in 2007, as well as her plans for another assault in 2016 or 2017. No mention has been made of how the latter played out.

 

Champions Online executed Luther Black's apotheosis as an adventure series, but did so in 2010 rather than 2012, and changed many other details from DEMON: Servants Of Darkness. They also went ahead with the apocalyptic war between Heaven and Hell centered on Vibora Bay which is "prophesied" in that book, but Steve Long once remarked he didn't want to incorporate what they did into our game's history.

 

If you're interested, the late great Hero Games author, Scott Bennie, created a free "Lore Primer" PDF updating the CU timeline through 2017 with events that played out in the MMO, as well as giving an overview of the setting, and discussing the differences between the tabletop version of the CU and the electronic one. Here's a link to where you can download it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzHmfdC4jXPpVmxGd1ZxcHVfbFk/view?resourcekey=0-aQezNwGn_cAOG1eUYbYz2Q

 

IIRC the last 5E Champs books which were published after the sale to Cryptic, and which were influenced by the new IP owners, were Book Of The Destroyer, Book Of The Machine (in-depth review of Mechanon), and Monster Island. BOTM has almost no details directly affected by Cryptic's continuity alterations, aside from Mechanon's physical appearance and how that affects a few of his abilities. As for the other two books, they were written before Cryptic developers had finalized what they wanted to do with the setting, so some of their details differ from what was finally done in the MMO. BOTD actually carries on with returning Doctor Destroyer to action in 2002, and describes his major activities and schemes through 2008, which the 6E references later retconned.

 

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[Cloppy Clip]

Thank you for the comprehensive reply, Lord Liaden; I don't know how you have room for all this knowledge in your brain, but I'm glad you do! That link by Scott Bennie looks very useful. I'd gotten a general overview from the 6E books, but this is put together very well, and laid out nicely, so I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of this as a reference. The doc actually reminded me of something I'd been wondering: there are references to a character called Vanguard, who I think is the setting's Superman equivalent, but I haven't been able to find stats for him and Google indicates they were never published. Did they deliberately choose not to, or was it just a matter of the opportunity never coming up? And how powerful was he roughly supposed to be -- around the Dr Destroyer level, or even stronger?

[Lord Liaden]

In 1959 a young American soldier named Jeffrey Sinclair was assigned to guard an archaeological expedition to Tibet. Separated from his companions during a severe blizzard, he wandered into a hidden valley and collapsed at the door of the mysterious Nyingpa Temple. The monks there nursed him back to health. Sinclair learned the temple housed an ancient artifact called the Bell of the Chosen, and curiosity led him to enter the room in which it was kept. When Sinclair saw the Bell he felt compelled to ring it, and found himself imbued with incredible strength, practical invulnerability, and the power to move and fly at fantastic speed.

Sinclair flew back to the States and adopted the identity of Vanguard. In 1962 he helped reform the Golden Age superhero team, the Justice Squadron, along with one of its original members, the Drifter. For over thirty years Vanguard protected Champions Earth with his Squadron comrades and on his own, saving it from terrible threats countless times. He's still considered the most powerful superhero who ever lived, and the paragon of heroism. Even Doctor Destroyer, despite his expressed contempt for Vanguard's morality, respected him as one of his greatest enemies, and exulted when Vanguard died during the Battle of Detroit, in shattering the largest of the asteroids DD was drawing toward Earth. (The most recent version of Vanguard's origin appears in Champions Beyond, while his death is recounted in Book Of The Destroyer.)

 

In 1984 Vanguard and Doctor Destroyer faced off one-on-one in Washington (as described in BOTD). They battled for an extended period (duration not specified), DD injuring Vanguard, the latter damaging DD's armor. But the Doctor's energy reserve was no match for his opponent's fantastic stamina and unwavering determination, and he was forced to retreat using a teleportation device in his armor. (It's unsettling to contemplate that the latest generation of Destroyer's armor is significantly more powerful.)

 

You're right, no stats for Vanguard have ever been published. The late Darren Watts had done considerable work on a followup to his magnum opus, Golden Age Champions, tentatively titled Silver Age Champions, to deal with the CU from the late 1950s to the early 1970s; and Vanguard's character sheet would probably have appeared there. But the disappointing sales of GAC led Darren to shelve that project. And now, of course, it's very unlikely SAC will ever see the light of day.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[Cloppy Clip]

I'd come across his origin story in Champions Beyond, but it's good to know there's more to read up on in Book of the Destroyer; thank you. And it'd be nice to see what Silver Age Champions would look like, but I can't think of anyone other than Darren I'd trust to do it justice. I was a bit late to the party, but after hearing the sad news I did some reading up on the various books he'd done for HERO, and I couldn't believe how much of the Champions univese was formally laid out by him. He left a tremendous legacy behind, even if he did pass much too soon.

 

He's also the writer who got me into HERO in the first place, thanks to Lucha Libre HERO. A book I bought on a whim because it was discounted and sounded funny, and it turned out to be such a faithful and respectful treatment of the genre that I was an immediate convert.

[Lord Liaden]

I haven't completely given up hope that someday, someone will take Darren's copious notes for Silver Age Champions and edit them into a publishable book, similarly to what was done a few years ago for the Strike Force campaign by the late great Aaron Allston. But plainly, that isn't a priority for Hero Games at present. But it is high on my list of causes to donate to after I win a big lottery prize.