Champions Now, A Review

[pawsplay]

This is one of the wildest things I've ever purchased. In a nutshell, this is a remix of old school Champions, the superhero roleplaying game, first through third editions, by Ron "I am definitely modern gaming" Edwards of Sorcerer fame. The whole book is written in caffeinated, stream-of-consciousness format, defying decades of textbook-style game writing, in favor of a style I usually associate with hundred page spirals from the university print shop. To get right to the point, this is one of the most fun and exciting things in gaming I've read in years. If you have even one superhero game on your shelf, you owe it to yourself to buy this game. Why? I'll tell you why, true believers. That is, after all, the main point of a review.

Many people associate Champions with baroque, math-heavy character creation. My personal introduction began in a book store in the early 90s with a charming-looking hardback called Champions. After a quick thumb through, one thing jumped out at me: Energy Blast, 5 points per 1d6 damage. After learning from the amazing-but-chart-heavy classic DC Heroes and the quirky yet catchy Marvel Super Heroes games, this was like a bolt from the blue. You could just spend a few points for whatever you want, no scaling costs, no limits, and powers were as simple or as complex as you wanted them to be. And make no mistake, under the surface, Champions and Hero System retain that core of simplicity after six editions. You can still make a 6e Champions character with five powers, no modifiers, a handful of skills, and some characteristics. Champions Now takes that core and brings me right back to that bookstore. Make no mistake, Champions Now retains such familiar elements as modifiers and characteristics. Champions Now strips that right down to its essential core. There is only a bare minimum a new Champions player would need to sit down and join a game. Champions Now poses the question of our day: what do you really, truly, need beyond that? Moreover, "special effects" has long been a hallmark of Champions. While Champions 6e allows you to modify a power to a truly exacting description of its effects, "special effects" remain in play. Essentially, it's the idea that fire burns. Regardless of all the modifiers and costs on the worksheet, intended to capture the essence of an ability, the GM is supposed to use those artifacts of play to reflect a fictional narrative. Does your character know how to make sushi? Of course she does! There's no point value for that. Well, Champions Now brings that completely to the front. Everything is special effects. The Powers section is prefaced with the statement: "Although we call these “powers” for convenience, they aren’t. They’re rules to punch the powers’ special effects into play." I'm not sure that's something I want to spell out. It's a little like revealing a magician's tricks. But as a concept, it's a winner. This is well beyond Hero System's "What does this power really do?" This is beyond M&M's "these are effects that build powers." This is way back to Marvel Super Heroes, "Here is a somewhat rambling essay about Wolverine's regeneration masquerading as an entry on a character sheet," but, as Ron says, "with teeth."

Champions Now, however, is its own beast. Combat is very fast and very rough. Ron states repeatedly and emphatically that this is a "let the dice fall where they may" style game. This is not only true to the roots of such old school games, but is also a tool of design. From the get-go, Champions Now is about putting elements into play to see what happens. The GM designs a game around Two Statements, one of which is about superheroes and the other one isn't. Like you might have, "The characters are young adult mutants living in Greenwich Village," and "Friends who are family." Having put that in place, the GM turns things loose to the players. Each player is urged to build their character around three corners: person, powers, and problems. So you have Jennifer, a perpetually broke graduate student on the outs with her wealthy parents. She has lightning powers, but specifically, close-in, high voltage current. And she feels a lot of sense of responsibility for her powers. She also has, I don't know, a teenage cousin who moved in after running away from her alcoholic parents. There is no negotiation phase, no hash-it-out, no setting bible. It's more like one of those games where every participant adds a sentence to the story. Nonetheless, the game is built around integrity. Every element is intended to add change, excitement, and dare I hope, emotion to the game.

Mechanics fall into the "get out of the way" variety. Almost everything is special effects. A power consists of little more than how much, how often, and what is the result. Is it a Piercing blast? A damage Aura? As to what to do, Champions Now doubles and triples down on Champions's two most iconic elements. The first is Endurance. While a lot of modern games dispense with such resource accounting, this element will be very familiar to any MMO player who has had to deal with limited energy and powerful cool-downs. CN is all pacing. Sometimes you fire off a few punches. Sometimes you expend extra effort, dipping deep into your endurance reserves at some risk. Sometimes you hide behind a pillar and Recover while your allies hold the line. Characters are durable, but if you start to take punishment, you will go down fast as Endurance and Knockout quickly run out. The other iconic Champions element is the Presence Attack. Just as much as they are defined by punches, dodges, and energy blasts, Champions characters are defined by Presence. Some characters have just a little, just enough to cow an ordinary thug with your powers. Others literally stop the action just by talking into the room. More importantly, though, are situational modifiers. Just glaring at people in the middle of a pitched fight will get you nowhere. But if you stride into a room, announced, "You started with out me? How rude!" and toss a bad guy through a window with telekinesis while standing literally on top of table with a cutting-ceremony cake for two hundred, you get a few extra dice. Online combat per se with its beat by beat pacing, Presence Attacks take no action, little time, and can happen at any moment, even, if you can get a word in edgewise, on someone else's turn. Presence Attacks reinforce the tropes of superheroes while encouraging constant, dig-deep inventiveness.

And what is a superhero, anyway? Early Batman hung guys out windows to their deaths. Superman ricocheted bullets right back at bad guys, ending them karmically. Later Batman refused to kill at all. Iron Man wrestled with alcoholism. DCAU series Wonder Woman was an out-and-out warrior, but with the heart and boundless compassion the character is known for. Champions Now focuses on the pulpy, messy, forget-continuity-the-Watcher-will-know-his-own style, mostly from the early Silver Age to the early Bronze. But literally, there is no telling you want to do. This could be the Mystery Men movie, or The Specials. It could be the New 52. It could be your own version of Cold War era do-gooders. It could be Cold War era style do-gooders, in the 21st century. Guys in goggles. Women in tights. Gorillas in football jersies. Ten year old wizards. Twenty foot tall anthropomorphic dogs. Lovable kid sidekicks. Terrifying actual-kid sidekicks in danger.

This is not a perfect book. Like the game it contains, like the media and stories it seeks to unleash, this lo-fi, superheropunk, indiepunk, retro-futuro madness. This is not the most accessible game to dive into and read. Still, if you walk with this book, if you read this book through once without trying to understand it all, if you go back and read it again, and jump around to the different parts until you get it, this thing will get inside you. If I had any complaint, it's that there is no newbie-friendly capsule version. Mind you, that won't capture the full spirit of what Ron is trying to accomplish here. But I think it might be a bit much to expect your average player to "get it" on the first time through. Make no mistake, though, this is a very accessible game to a new group, if presented in actual play. If one or two players make the effort of digging deep into it, they can easily lead the way. And for a savvy GM, this game is a cinch to run and a cinch to teach. If CN really catches on, I think it could lead to a refined second edition, with maybe a few helpful pamphlets to fire up the coal in the engine. Such refinement, though, needs to be done carefully, lest this four-color rock star nerd magic of a game turn into a glossy, never-sweating, overproduced imitation of itself.

Even if you never play this game, by all means, at least read it. But play it.

Special Thanks to: Ron Edwards, Steve Long, George MacDonald, and Steve Peterson, long may they reign.

[Greywind]

Holy Wall-of-Text, Batman!

[dmjalund]

8 hours ago, Greywind said:

Holy Wall-of-Text, Batman!

Name the Bat-villain who would use this as a death trap 

[BigJackBrass]

12 hours ago, pawsplay said:

The whole book is written in caffeinated, stream-of-consciousness format

Apparently it's contagious. 

[IndianaJoe3]

16 hours ago, Greywind said:

Holy Wall-of-Text, Batman!

 

7 hours ago, dmjalund said:

Name the Bat-villain who would use this as a death trap 

 

The Bookworm, or maybe Egghead.

[pawsplay]

8 hours ago, BigJackBrass said:

Apparently it's contagious. 

 

Truthfully, my review is written in essay format, as a series of linked paragraphs, most of them either structured as a series of building points, or as premise-elaboration-conclusion.

[fdw3773]

On 5/3/2020 at 8:00 AM, IndianaJoe3 said:

 

 

The Bookworm, or maybe Egghead.

Riddler also...and maybe even the Joker who alludes to a clue he hid in the wall of text in a comment, "You forgot to read the fine print..."