mojo_bones Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Dice were hard to come by, too. Each one was hand-carved out of a 1-ton block of marble. They cost 50¢. Each. That doesn't sound like much, but that works out to just about $47.20 in today's dollars. When we couldn't get dice, we'd have to pay a soothsayer to sit in on the game and tell us what our dice rolls would've been. If you slipped him a beer every so often, you'd get better rolls. Not too many though, or you'd start getting weird results like a roll of pi on a 5d6 damage roll. For dice, we raided other board games. This would cause my older sibling fits when they went to play Yatzee or Risk. Buy a bunch of 6 sideds...where?? And beer? Beer was not an option. We had juice boxes that would be thrown at each other once they were empty. All of our character sheets ended up with red juice dots all over them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vestnik Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." They'll Stun you when the damage rolled is more Than Defense plus your Constitution score. They'll stun you even though you are a Hero, Your Defensive Combat Value drops to zero Lucius Alexander From "Everybody Must Get Stunned" copyright Palindromedary Enterprises. You forgot to invoke the Muse. You now receive -5 to all rolls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoloOfEarth Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Why, back when *I* started playing Champions, comic books hadn't even been invented yet, so we didn't even know what the heck we were playing. But we didn't complain, nooooo, we were happy to play it. And dice?! We threw dirt clods to determine if we hit or did damage. Sometimes we didn't even have dirt, and we had to make do with handfuls of air. And we felt lucky to have *that*, let me tell you sonny! Players? I played with Robert Dole! Him and two dinosaurs! And don't get me started on your new-fangled, fancy-smancy "points"!!! We were playing before numbers were even invented. (Can't tell you how long before, since, well, numbers hadn't been invented yet.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plex Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Back when I first started playing Champions, Chainmail was still in print. I'm still trying to figure out which of the two systems took longer to make a character. (Of course that is still true for both systems today..hehe) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NestorDRod Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Oh, man, the memories... Champions 1st edition... Mark Williams artwork... Marksman wearing bicycle pants... Gargoyle eating Jimmy Dugan's microphones... The theory that Viper Leader and Brick were the same person because their illustrations had them in the exact same pose... Characters with three skills, and none of them non-combat. You kids, you don't know what you missed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
"V" Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Back when I started playing Champions... ...I put a paper cover round my copy of Champions II because the prominent nipples showing through the costume of the chick on the front would have caused sarcastic comments from my parents. ...I realised just what Munchkin meant (although we didn't use the term then) when one particular player turned in perfectly legal characters that outclassed all the rest of the team put together. ...the brown paper hex map that came with the boxed set was used for every single school dinnertime session and ended up covered with pencil initials showing each character's position for when the combat round restarted the next school day. ...I first got to grips with long term campaign plotting, foreshadowing and decent npc character development. Fun days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vestnik Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Oh, man, the memories... Champions 1st edition... Mark Williams artwork... Marksman wearing bicycle pants... Gargoyle eating Jimmy Dugan's microphones... The theory that Viper Leader and Brick were the same person because their illustrations had them in the exact same pose... Characters with three skills, and none of them non-combat. You kids, you don't know what you missed. I miss Gargoyle and Marksman. Whatever happened to those characters? I'm guessing some kind of copywrite issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." I recall buying my first Champons rulebook in 1983 (2nd ed?). I remember putting the book down after reading it from cover to cover in about an hour and thinking "Yes!. Part of the appeal was that I didn't need all these wierd dice you could only find in special gaming stores. It wasn't long until I bought every supplement usable, three sets of differetly-colored dice (another teaching supply store -- hey had everything!). If I needed more dice I could always find them at the drugstore right next to the playing cards. I had a Radio Shack PC-1 a pre-commodore personal computer. It had 2 kb memory and was programmable in basic. It doubled as a ruler -- inches up one side and centimeters down the other. I used it to generate d6 rolls, individually or multiple dice. I bought a 2' x 3' sheet of paper with 1" hex grids on it. I took it to a local teaching supply store and they laminated it for me. That way we could use water-soluble markers to map out the terrain and still endlessly reuse the map. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NestorDRod Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." I miss Gargoyle and Marksman. Whatever happened to those characters? I'm guessing some kind of copywrite issue. If I recall correctly, Gargoyle was Aaron Allston's character, and he kept ownership of it, which is why the character got dropped when the next edition rolled out (3rd? 4th? My memory fails me). God help me, I have this sudden urge to go dig out my old copies to recall the old roster. Let's see: Marksman, Gargoyle, Goliath, Flare... Dang it, I know I'm missing someone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." If I recall correctly, Gargoyle was Aaron Allston's character, and he kept ownership of it, which is why the character got dropped when the next edition rolled out (3rd? 4th? My memory fails me). God help me, I have this sudden urge to go dig out my old copies to recall the old roster. Let's see: Marksman, Gargoyle, Goliath, Flare... Dang it, I know I'm missing someone. Rose IIRC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoloOfEarth Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Wasn't there an Iceman type character too? And yes, Rose is correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Marksman, Rose, Flare, Gargoyle, Dove, Icestar and Giant IIRC ... Personally, I miss the old Champions listings for both hero and villain options Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BNakagawa Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Gargoyle, IIRC, was Mark Williams' character. Force - Mike Gray (not the one associated with Milton Bradley, though) Mercenary - Doug Garrett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vestnik Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Gargoyle, IIRC, was Mark Williams' character. Force - Mike Gray (not the one associated with Milton Bradley, though) Mercenary - Doug Garrett Were writeups for these characters ever published? I am indeed curious. Wasn't Mechanon supposedly their guardian robot gone mad or something in that vein? (PS when does Grond date from? I took a huge leave of absence from Champions from around 1990 to 2004 and don't remember him. I do remember Firewing though, and Mechassassin, my fave villain.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Steel Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Marksman, Rose, Flare, Gargoyle, Dove, Icestar and Giant IIRC ... Personally, I miss the old Champions listings for both hero and villain options I take it you did not know about "The Galloping Gallooper!" Back in my day, you young whippersnappers. We've had to first read comic books to understand what this new fangled contraption callin' itself Champions was all about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
"V" Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." "Gobbler's on the Interstate..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Don't you mean ORDERLY? He doesn't like being reminded of when he was called "Nurse Naughty". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapsedgamer Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Oh, man! The grey Champions book that came in the box (2nd Edition?), along with Champions II and III, that's where I started in high school, 1983 or so. I then jumped on the big blue book as soon as it came out. I remember the damn thing fell apart on me because the binding was so bad. I ended up putting a big rubber band around it to keep it together. Still, those were good times. By the way, I actually like the extra 100 points. I used to dislike the fact that you could never get the flavor of certain character on 250 points. You missed out on the subtle variations of their powers and the ability to add more background skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRavenIs Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Back in my day, Hero books couldn't put you into the ER when thrown! Back in my day, we didn't need the extra 100 pts to play a superhero! Back in my day, the only house rule we needed was to figure out whose house we were gaming at! mega-ditto's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRavenIs Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Back when I started playing Champions' date=' we didn't have laptops and HERO Designer. We made our characters on a legal pad, with a pencil and an eraser... and an abacus. [/quote'] With us it wasn't an abacus but an old style mechanical adding machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRavenIs Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Back when I started playing Champions we didn't have a cap on points. We didn't need them. There were 11 skills and we kicked that whiny Batman Wannabe's ass all over Rosie's Bar. .... and it was possiable to be a wantabe Batman and not feel guilty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald Mask Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Champions came in a box with teeny tiny dice, If you wanted extra powers you had to buy Champs II, I had all my hair and it was all brown . My oldest son was little and Justice Incorporated had just come out. And Jimmy Dugan was the media darling of Champs world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRavenIs Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Oh, man, the memories... Champions 1st edition... Mark Williams artwork... Marksman wearing bicycle pants... Gargoyle eating Jimmy Dugan's microphones... The theory that Viper Leader and Brick were the same person because their illustrations had them in the exact same pose... Characters with three skills, and none of them non-combat. You kids, you don't know what you missed. ..... those where the headie days of yore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austenandrews Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." Back when I started playing Champions, we tracked points with tick marks instead of numerals. The reason we had fewer points is because we couldn't fit any more on the character sheet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKJAM! Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Re: "Back when I started playing Champions...." ...the GM set the campaign in the dystopic future of 1940, when the Earth was in the grips of a Second Great War. Naturally, we all laughed, since we all had just come through a Great War, and knew that no country would dare start another. But then, we didn't think they'd ban beer, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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