gojira Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 What is Champions Beyond? Is it just the space part of the Champions Universe, or is it high-powered cosmic role playing? I thought the latter, but the description of Champions Beyond in the online store cuts off half way through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? It is the space part of the Champions Universe. While you don't have to be high powered in this setting, it helps to be so. Compair this to the Champions 3000 setting, if you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted October 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? I don't have Champions 3000. So does it cover actual rules and advice for building high powered and cosmic heroes? Is it basically a "game" of cosmically powered heroes, with allies, villains and milieu? Or is it more CU expansion, with the power levels kind of incidental. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? I don't have it eather, but I am willing to say the later more than the former. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Hiemforth Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? It's a CU expansion. Galactic Champions (not "Champions 3000") was the 5E sub-genre book for building and playing high-powered, far-future superheroes a la the Legion of Super-Heroes. Champions Beyond is not like that. It's about alien races & civilizations in the (current-era) Champions Universe. It contains no rules or character-building advice, etc. (other than Templates appropriate for the alien races). It's entirely a setting expansion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? Essentially, Champions Beyond is a setting expansion for the Champions Universe, detailing the supers-appropriate parts of the Solar System, the Milky Way Galaxy, and even a little beyond it. It doesn't provide much in the way of specific advice for high-powered supers gaming, and while a few of the NPCs and villains described are among the most powerful ever published by Hero Games (or even transcend game stats into the realm of "plot device"), the majority of the book is geared to more Standard Superhero levels of play. Quite a bit of it would also be of use for heroic-level sci-fi games. The book starts with a history of Champions Earth's dealings with alien races and civilizations, and describes the ones known to present-day Earth in fair detail, including a number of character templates. This also includes known "cosmic entities." Following are chapters on Earth's Moon (a very busy place in the CU) and the rest of our Solar System. We then get very detailed chapters on each of the currently-active alien races who have the most interaction with Earth: the Malvans, Hzeel, Qularr, Gadroon, and Elder Worm. These chapters include history, society, racial descriptions (including templates), statted technology (including starships), and generic and singular NPCs (many, in fact). There's also a full chapter devoted to the CU's analogue to the Green Lantern Corps, the Star*Guard, and a few of their most notable enemies. The "GM's Vault" chapter not only includes non-player-appropriate info relevant to the preceding chapters, but describes races, beings, and artifacts not yet known to humanity. There are a LOT of alien races, the majority of them drawn from Terran Empire and Alien Wars (although adjusted to reflect this earlier stage in their social and astro-political history), many with 6E character templates. A small amount of material from Galactic Champions is included, also updated to 6E where applicable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? Thanks...I don't know how I got Champions 3000 from Galatic Champions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? Possibly because it's set in the year 3000? In your defense, it has become common around here to refer to future analogues to present-day CU characters and groups from Galactic Champions as, for example, "Mechanon 3000," "Defender 3000," "Firewing 3000," etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? I just picked it up a week or so ago (despite not playing 6e; it's an easy conversion). I daresay it's pretty cool; 5e had covered the mystical side of the Champions Universe, but the cosmic/extraterrestrial side seemed to be neglected. It's got a fair number of villain writeups, some cosmic entities written up (and some not, because a writeup would just be unnecessary; they can do just about anything, no need for points), information on the official CU alien races (some more detailed than others), and perhaps best of all, write-ups and information on the Star*Guard (the CU's answer to the Green Lantern Corps). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted October 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? Ok, Champions Beyond is NOT Cosmic Champions. Thanks for clearing that up. Hint to all writers out there: Need Cosmic Champions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? I suspect that Galactic Champions is as much "cosmic supers gaming" as Hero Games itself intends to cover for the foreseeable future. Reportedly, sales of GC were respectable but not outstanding. Some of the advice on gaming high-level supers from GC made it into the 6E Champions genre book (which is NOT the same as the new Champions Complete). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted October 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Re: What is Champions Beyond? I suspect that Galactic Champions is as much "cosmic supers gaming" as Hero Games itself intends to cover for the foreseeable future. Reportedly' date=' sales of GC were respectable but not outstanding.[/quote'] Well, considering it's background material and somewhat niche at that, I'd expect it to have slower sales. There's been some discussion elsewhere about systems for cosmic supers, which is why I'm asking. It's hard to recommend Hero for a specific genre if all of the actual background material has been removed and has to be made up by the players and GM from whole cloth. Yes, I do expect that CC sales will have to be very good before any sort of expansion is considered. I'm just tossing my two nickels out where that expansion might go. Some of the advice on gaming high-level supers from GC made it into the 6E Champions genre book (which is NOT the same as the new Champions Complete). All the more reason to consider reprinting those rules elsewhere, eventually. FYI, here's my response to a request for additional genre books from Hero Games. You can see I f'ed-up and said Champions Beyond is a genre book, when it's not. That is what sort of started me thinking about genre books and what might round out Hero's offering a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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