Arcane Adversaries

[Steve Long]

Here’s our back-cover text describing AA:

 

SORCERERS, MONSTERS, AND FIENDS...

 

The Mystic World of the Champions Universe is peopled by some of the strangest — and often most evil — beings in the Multiverse. Arcane Adversaries describes some of the most fiendish of these denizens of the shadows for your Champions campaign. It includes:

 

—three dozen new supervillains, ranging in power from the likes of the imprisoned elder god Vulshoth and the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca to physically frail human wizards who nevertheless command potent magics

 

—five mystic factions or villain groups — the Circle of the Scarlet Moon, the Devil’s Advocates, the Kings of Edom, the Sylvestri family, and the Vandaleur clan — with information on their members, servants, goals, and tactics

 

—twelve solo villains, suitable for use as the main antagonist in an adventure or grouping into teams

 

—reference tables listing the villains by type and abilities so you can quickly find just the one you need

 

Even if your heroes are powerful enough to handle mundane supervillains without any problem, you’ll find something eerie and macabre to challenge them among the Arcane Adversaries!

 

 

ISBN: 1-58366-046-1

SKU: DOJHERO214

Price: $24.99 US

 

You can buy this book in our Online Store.

[Steve Long]

Re: Arcane Adversaries

 

Here’s a copy of ghost-angel’s review of AA. Feel free to post other reviews, or links to them, if you like!

 

The Upside:

 

Arcane Adversaries is a collection of Mystic Villains for use with Champions. It contains five organizations and twelve solo villains.

 

Chapter One - Mystic Factions And Organizations. Five adversarial organizations are provided, from low powered to near world dominating.

 

The Circle Of The Scarlet Moon is a conspiracy type organization. As far as raw power goes they don't have a lot, you won't see members blasting holes in walls. As far as social power goes the Scarlet Moon is everywhere. Politics, law, religion, business, pretty much everywhere. They make a great mystery type adversary, taking down one member will not dismantle the entire organization.

 

The Devil's Advocates are much closer to a classic Supervillain team, with Magic as their driving special effect. Their goal is to eliminate modern society, technology and culture, believing the pre-industrial revolutionary world was the ideal world to live in. While an interesting collection of characters, both individually and as a group, their use is limited to mostly classic superheroic style encounters.

 

The Kings Of Edom is Hero Games version of Lovercraftian Nightmares. And they're a good take on the concept of things that are just Strange And Evil. The cult around them is DEMON which has a sourcebook of its own. The Kings themselves, and a few powerful servants not related to DEMON, are detailed here. The Kings Of Edom would be good as the big things that go bump behind a Pulp campaign, or even a Cthulhu Hero style game.

 

The Sylvestri Clan is an extended family of mystics and occult practitioners. They can be used in a variety of ways. First as low powered adversaries with a wide reach, or as a higher powered group of mystics. The Sylvestries are really a collection of families, The Patriarch at their head. They are worshippers of The Dragon, which puts them at odds with just about every other occult group out there.

 

The Vandaleurs is another family group of mystics. Unlike the Sylvestries they don't have a central focus. In fact, some portions of the family aren't evil at all, but the Vandaleurs are more widespread through the world than the Sylvestries. The Vandaleurs trick is that their patriarch can suppress or augment any one of his descendants relatives, and lives in secrecy and behind a number of false identities. This trick keeps the family in line, and prevents in fighting that might otherwise fracture it. Since the family is less tightly knit than the Sylvestries it wouldn't be out of place to find a member as part of another organization (like the Scarlet Moon or DEMON) as hook to get them into a game.

 

Both families would make an excellent group of NPCs for an Urban Fantasy game as well as a Mystic Oriented Champions game. In fact, considering both families are low to mid powered mystically and have a similar structure you could use them as two factions in a fully Mystical world. They work well together in the same setting, either as enemies (most likely) or occasional allies.

 

Chapter Two - Mystic Solo Villains. Twelve villains who aren't connected to an organization are presented. Many of the villains aren't actually evil, but forced into circumstances they cause them to commit evil acts. Like many displays of mysticism the magic is more often a curse than a blessing.

 

Blackfang is a classic cursed Werewolf. Bromion is an aspect of Absolute Order who wishes to create Perfect Order by homogenizing reality. Doctor Teneber is a man who can bring the dead back to life, but at a cost. Evil Eye is a young girl caught in the grips of an artifact beyond her control. Frag is a young woman with demon's blood running through her veins, but not entirely sympathetic. Harpy is a villainess who uses a potion to change into a classic mythical Harpy. Hell Rider is a man who made a bargain with the devil for revenge. Lamplighter is one of the few absolutely evil villains presented. Mother Gothel is a faery tale nightmare come to life. Tezcatlipoca is bent on bringing back the worship of the ancient Aztec Gods, a Cultist write-up is provided as well. Witchfinder is a man who hunts down and kills mystic characters vigilante style, it's only a matter of time before he goes after a Mystic PC.

 

The solo adversaries are a good range of people to put into a game. From freeing them of a curse to full opponents in a game you have pretty much everything you need.

 

They range in power as well, some of them would work perfectly in a Mystic Heroic game as well as a Champions game. The book would also do very well to add even more background to the Vibora Bay setting.

 

The Downside:

 

Unlike other NPC books for Hero there is no Master Villain chapter, the book could have fleshed itself out a little more by providing one or two more truly powerful Mystic Villains for use as the main enemy in a game.

 

It's just short, there aren't too many characters presented here.

 

The Otherside:

 

While the book is written for Champions it's use extended way beyond the Superhero genre. The Circle Of The Scarlet Moon is almost perfect as is for a Pulp game with a mystic bent. Modern Occult or Urban Fantasy games can also use a number of characters and organizations in this book. The myriad of uses it has for different genres makes up completely for its brevity.

 

For any game needing some villains or NPCs of a mystic bent this is a highly recommended book. What the book lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality and variety.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Arcane Adversaries

 

Here's my review for AA:

Arcane Adversaries is an enemy book for Champions, the superhero rules for the Hero System (DoJ, Inc./Hero Games). Though made for Champions, an inventive GM would find this as an invaluable resource that has much potential for conversion to their favorite system.

Enemy books are common for every system out there. D&D has the Monster Manuals I-III, d20 Modern has the Menace Manual and even Star Wars has Ultimate Adversaries. But no system has as much history with enemy books as the Hero System. Through the 20+ years of publication and several incarnations (as well as companies), the Hero System has seen a plethora of enemy books, starting with Enemies back in the early 80s and continuing with Arcane Adversaries.

Within this book, the GM/reader is introduced to over thirty super-villains, all with a supernatural or magical twist. Starting with the Circle of the Scarlet Moon, the author (Dean Shomshak, author of the Ultimate Super-Mage) has created an interesting group of villains that seem to have as many “real-life” goals as they do villainous goals. The idea that someone would use magic in conjunction with business/financial power is almost clichéd … but in a good way. Next up is a slight revamp of an old favorite, The Devil’s Advocates. Remade for the 5th edition Champions Universe, this organization is ran by the evil Demonologist and includes such characters as Gyre and Golem. As a side note here, the art for this particular chapter seems kind of hokey at best, but I like it … it reminds me of Jeff Dee’s old Villains and Vigilantes art from the ‘80s.

With a heavy nod to Lovecraft, The Kings of Edom detail a small group of transdimensional horrors that have their eyes (and tentacles) targeted on Earth. Though a bit zany, some of the creatures within have a lot of potential as foes for mystical players (or at least as a threat that must be stopped before they invade). With an obvious nod to some rebellious comic creators, The Sylvestri Clan depicts a group that almost seems like a mystical mafia. With characters named McFarlane and Liefield in the mix, one would wonder where the Lees, Larsons and Valentinos are. Another revamp that’s made it into this book is the Vandaleurs, a family of mystics that range from the evil to the slightly corrupt. Of all the organizations, this is the one that I liked the best … especially in regards to “The Toad.”

Finally, the reader is treated to a small horde of solo villains including Evil Eye, Bromion and Witchfinder (all of which are favorites of mine). Unlike many mystic books, the soloists range from the typical mage to the petty thief to true super-villainy. There’s even a supernatural hunter that could give most gun-toting vigilantes a run for their money. I would easily say that the last chapter was a selling point for me.

Overall, the book is a good read, especially for fans of mystical comics. The graphic design follows the uniform of typical Hero System books, with some good illustrations on the interior and a dramatic cover by Andrew Cremeans. I’ve always been fond of the “enemies” books, as I’ve found them full of great ideas … even if I don’t intend on using them right out of the package. I think my only regret of this book is not having more of the uber-mage characters or dimensional entities … but from what I understand, these will be seen in The Mystic World, a sourcebook on Champions’ mystic characters (and companion to Mr. Shomshak’s Ultimate Mystic).

[Crinos]

Re: Arcane Adversaries

 

I'm personally disappointed that they replaced Mrs. Meigs from 4th edition's Creatures of the night: Horror enemies (where many of the villains in this book originate from) with the relatively less creative Bromion as the minion of the lord of order. same goes with replacing almost half of the Devils advocates (Including the highly entertaining Brother Bone) and leaving out Archimago.

 

Still, the guys who are in there are great. I like Evil Eye and Mother Goethel especially.

[Dr Archeville]

Re: Arcane Adversaries

 

I also miss Brother Bone. And Archimago, though I do see why he was left out (the "campaign timeline" has advanced and he's already... moved on). But I've got my own copy of Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies, so I can always convert 'em. And everything else in the book -- especially the Sylvestris, the Vandaleurs, and Doctor Teneber -- is full of win

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Arcane Adversaries

 

Remember that the current official CU has Takofanes filling the "archlich" role which Archimago once covered.

 

Bromion actually has a Hero pedigree, having appeared in the Fourth Edition sourcebook Ultimate SuperMage.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Arcane Adversaries

 

I miss Brother Bone too (spell-slinging Satan-worshiping undead skeleton, what's not to like?), as well as Shadowfire with his enhanced-by-his-druggie-minions powers, but what the heck, they shouldn't be that hard to work up if you want to.