Blue Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 It's frivolous opinion time! I read some comments this morning on people trying to get old Champions material through E-Bay and suddenly flashed back on the worst supplement I ever bought. So I thought I'd see if people can remember what the worst superhero related supplement was that they ever bought. I was going to limit this to champions, but it might be just as fun to hear about awful MSH, DC heroes, etc. My vote (and this is fairly obscure): "Bad Medicine for Dr. Drugs", an adventure with teenage heroes in high school, made for both Champions and Superworld. It makes me want to have players design humorous "tick" style characters so I can then try to run this supplement straight-faced. So howzaboutit? Bought anything truly awful? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 I think Europeon Enemies is almost universally loathed around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 I didn't think it was that bad. European Enemies that is. I found Villany Unbound to be more of a letdown. But there is a Dark Champions one with very few usable things in it. And I can't remember the name. It is the one with the three agent like people on the front. Reddish sort of cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhamin Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 I hate to admit it, but the worst Superhero supplament I have ever seen was the old Champions adventure "Scourge from the Deep" A team of aquatic theamed villians go on a rampage. The problem lies with the Characters. They include: Barnacle - A power armored guy who clings to stuff. That is the extent of his power. Man'O War - A gellyfish with a face and Human legs. No arms, no torso, just legs. Coral - Takes damage when she shoots parts of herself at you. Odds are, she will drop before her target Dolphin - The gadgeteer. A dolphin that hates humans. Wore a metal tube that covered most of his body and had robotic arms. Shark - Kind of scary combatant, but his main power was to change enemies into sharks so they would asphyxiate. Coast Guard - (the NPC "Hero") A dimwitted night watchmen in glowing white plastic powerarmor that looks like is is made from milkjugs. Even better, the armor was given to him by an intelligent space otter who thought he was loveable. The climax of the adventure comes when the villians take over a TV studio to broadcast their demands. I couldn't get past how they all avoided drying out under the lights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterhawk Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Re: Worst...Supplement...Ever... Originally posted by Blue My vote (and this is fairly obscure): "Bad Medicine for Dr. Drugs", an adventure with teenage heroes in high school, made for both Champions and Superworld. Ick, good pick...didn't that have a fat guy that could eat anything? Originally posted by Blue So howzaboutit? Bought anything truly awful? The first two Blood of Heroes (1st Edition Rulesbook and the Sidekick supliment) offerings ultilize the old DC Heroes rules (one of the best systems ever IMHO) and have some of the worst artwork and sample characters ever...to the point that I can't believe anyone could publish these books and say "Yeah, this is really good." And then there is the worst suppliment of all time...I have been on the boards awhile now, and have long expoused the evils of this Champions equivalent of a Pauly Shore movie...European Enemies! Stupid, sometimes stereotyped, but always boring characters...character artwork that did not match the 'Appearance' section of the character...so many errors that they actually had a send in for an errata sheet right in the middle of the suppliment...I can honestly say I have never used any character published in this suppliment and never will. It only collects dust on my bookshelf for use as a cautionary example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterhawk Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Originally posted by death tribble I didn't think it was that bad. European Enemies that is. I beg to differ, see above Originally posted by death tribble I found Villany Unbound to be more of a letdown. But there is a Dark Champions one with very few usable things in it. And I can't remember the name. It is the one with the three agent like people on the front. Reddish sort of cover. An Eye for an Eye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetle Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 As the proud owner of both Scourge from the Deep and European Enemies (lucky me ), I have to say that as cheesy as SftD is, it can't hope to approach the level of badness embraced by European Enemies. Man, that thing was terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starcorp Man Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 For me, it has to be Mutant File. I loath that book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Re: Worst...Supplement...Ever... Originally posted by Blue My vote (and this is fairly obscure): "Bad Medicine for Dr. Drugs", an adventure with teenage heroes in high school, made for both Champions and Superworld. It makes me want to have players design humorous "tick" style characters so I can then try to run this supplement straight-faced. It had decent art though. Jackson (Butch) Guice IIRC. European Enemies gets my vote. Keith "No Frecnh jokes, please" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Scourge from the Deep had the Underwater rules but villains who truely sucked. A lot worse than the ones in European Enemies But for utility, An Eye for an Eye. And I am grateful to Winterhawk for the quick comeback on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Posted March 17, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 I forgot about Scourge! Yup, it was all about the bad supervillains. Another example of something so bad it's almost fun to run. And Blood of heroes (1) was really bad. I had been looking forward to it since I was vaguely familiar with MEGS. Seems like the publishers needed a good beating after releasing that first one. Did the subsequent versions improve it any? I refused to buy in again. (My vote is still for BMfDD though.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starcorp Man Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Speaking of European Enemies, what was the secret page about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allen Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Re: Worst...Supplement...Ever... Originally posted by Blue "Bad Medicine for Dr. Drugs" Have never read the module, but absolutely love the title... has to rank up there in 'my best superhero module titles' ever list. (Which is admittedly probably even *more* frivolous than 'worst supplement ever list'.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starcorp Man Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Bad Medicine wasn't created by Hero Games, so does it count? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Posted March 17, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 I think Chaosium made it? It had dual stats for both superworld and champions. I'd count it. Point isn't to beat up on Hero Games (because we love them!) but to beat up on everyone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom McCarthy Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 It's hard to pick the worst. So many supplements had glaring flaws, but only a few were irredeemable. Scourge from the Deep certainly never made me want to actually run the adventure (nice Tom Lyle cover, though). Ditto for the Invaders from Below, Olympians (nice George Perez cover, though), Road Kill, and Demons Rule (though it's the most salvageable of the bunch). European Enemies had a few interesting concepts, but really few for the size and possible scope of the book (reasonable Jackson Guice cover ruined by the colorist). Mutant File was disappointingly out of scope for my campaigns at that time; the point tallies just were out of reach (nice Storn cover, but the interior art was uninspiring). High tech Enemies had similar power level issues, but the cover didn't grab me the same way. Most of these supplements had classic ideas and themes that failed in the details and I never was willing to work to recover them. By comparison VOICE of Doom (villains too powerful), Target: Hero (incomplete character sheets), Atlas Unleashed (lame supervillains) and some others definitely are ones I want to run (and run again for other players) despite their flaws. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Sprigg Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Strike Force. Actually, I'm going to say Road Kill. This is an adventure in which the PCs are supposed to stop a heavy metal band from killing...the New Kids on the Block. Any of my characters would have either stood there waiting for the right moment to 'arrive just an instant too late' or outright helped them finish the job. I mean, I thought Wings of the Valkyrie had a moral dilemma... Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Originally posted by Glen Sprigg Strike Force. Actually, I'm going to say Road Kill. This is an adventure in which the PCs are supposed to stop a heavy metal band from killing...the New Kids on the Block. Any of my characters would have either stood there waiting for the right moment to 'arrive just an instant too late' or outright helped them finish the job. I mean, I thought Wings of the Valkyrie had a moral dilemma... Glen Heh. Snort. GUFFAW! :D Keith "Good One!" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterhawk Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Originally posted by death tribble But for utility, An Eye for an Eye. And I am grateful to Winterhawk for the quick comeback on this. Useless trivia at your service! Originally posted by Glen Sprigg Actually, I'm going to say Road Kill. This is an adventure in which the PCs are supposed to stop a heavy metal band from killing...the New Kids on the Block. Any of my characters would have either stood there waiting for the right moment to 'arrive just an instant too late' or outright helped them finish the job. I mean, I thought Wings of the Valkyrie had a moral dilemma... ROFLMAFO...As a long time roadie, I always thought Roadkill was totally cliched myself... Originally posted by Starcorp Man Speaking of European Enemies, what was the secret page about? Being the dork that I am, I actually sent away for it...I have it scanned if anyone would like to see it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 European Enemies = mind-numbingly bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 It wasn't 'bad' but I have to say, "Pyramid in the Sky" just left me cold. Didn't do a thing for me. (Does this supplement make me look fat?) And yes, asking a group of players to 'save' the NKOB is really cruel. I had one guy ask if he could spend five points and buy his character's "Total Code VS Killing" down so it allowed for "a few exceptions". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Hiemforth Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Originally posted by winterhawk Being the dork that I am, I actually sent away for it...I have it scanned if anyone would like to see it. Sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterhawk Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 This was the send in from European Enemies in .jpg format. http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/lanceskijr/lst?.dir=/FIles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug McCrae Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Re: Re: Worst...Supplement...Ever... Originally posted by winterhawk The first two Blood of Heroes (1st Edition Rulesbook and the Sidekick supliment) offerings ultilize the old DC Heroes rules (one of the best systems ever IMHO) and have some of the worst artwork and sample characters ever... You are so right. I can't stand to read those books because of the drawings. One of the few examples of a product that has been made a lot worse by adding artwork. The Sidekick supplement actuallly has even more of the crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starcorp Man Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Originally posted by winterhawk This was the send in from European Enemies in .jpg format. http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/lanceskijr/lst?.dir=/FIles Umm there's nothing there. I actually liked Demons Rule, I liked the whole Cthulhu bent to the adventure. Ran it once and it was mighty successful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.