Where to start

[james4177]

I am a long time player from when Champions first launched back in the early 80s. Played a lot through 4th edition and a little bit of 5th edition.

 

Interested in organizing a a campaign again but honestly don't know where to start.

 

Anyone have suggestions for where to begin? 

 

Thanks!

 

J--

[Panpiper]

Well, if you don't have a circle of friends who can play tabletop in real life, that pretty much relegates you to online options. The advantage of on line is that you have a lot more potential players. The disadvantage is that it is nowhere near as social nor as simple as just drawing on a hex mat and using figurines while everyone chats and shares books.

 

Online options would include gaming utilities like Roll20, Fantasy Grounds and Tabletop Simulator. Roll20 might be the easiest, as long as you aren't expecting it to do much more with it than provide a chat service along with a basic map, character figures you can move and basic dice rolls. Fantasy Grounds has better map functions, but even less support for game systems outside of D&D.

 

Tabletop Simulator due to the efforts of one very dedicated modder may ultimately be the best option. It may require a bit more brain power to get started with, but long term would probably provide the most enjoyment. Check him out through his YouTube site and then follow the links he provides in his video descriptions.

 

Finally there is the option of playing Play By Post, which involves the least learning, but is also the slowest option with regard to actual game play. That said, there seems to be an awful lot more character role play in Play By Post than in other gaming methods, including RL tabletop.

 

If you do get something going on line, please do consider me interested. I have plenty of time in my week and apparently a bottomless enthusiasm for Hero System.

[pinecone]

1 hour ago, james4177 said:

I am a long time player from when Champions first launched back in the early 80s. Played a lot through 4th edition and a little bit of 5th edition.

 

Interested in organizing a a campaign again but honestly don't know where to start.

 

Anyone have suggestions for where to begin? 

 

Thanks!

 

J--

Well, first pick a rule set. 5th is still doable, 6th is the current "main" set. It is the size of two phone books, and I do not like it at all, so tastes may vary. Also Champions now! is coming out soon, based on 3rd ed. and there is a champions complete that is a thinned down version of 6 (200+ pages) that I use and like just fine. You will likely want to poll the locals to see if there are preferences, then pick one. After that pick a locality, I always use the closest large city, and use highway maps etc.getting a collection of villians may be a time saver as well. Good luck! And good gaming!

[james4177]

4 hours ago, pinecone said:

Well, first pick a rule set. 5th is still doable, 6th is the current "main" set. It is the size of two phone books, and I do not like it at all, so tastes may vary. Also Champions now! is coming out soon, based on 3rd ed. and there is a champions complete that is a thinned down version of 6 (200+ pages) that I use and like just fine. You will likely want to poll the locals to see if there are preferences, then pick one. After that pick a locality, I always use the closest large city, and use highway maps etc.getting a collection of villians may be a time saver as well. Good luck! And good gaming!

 

Thanks a ton for your answer! Champions now... is that the current product? I'd really love to run published scenarios can we expect Champions now to have those?

 

J--

[james4177]

5 hours ago, Panpiper said:

Well, if you don't have a circle of friends who can play tabletop in real life, that pretty much relegates you to online options. The advantage of on line is that you have a lot more potential players. The disadvantage is that it is nowhere near as social nor as simple as just drawing on a hex mat and using figurines while everyone chats and shares books.

 

Online options would include gaming utilities like Roll20, Fantasy Grounds and Tabletop Simulator. Roll20 might be the easiest, as long as you aren't expecting it to do much more with it than provide a chat service along with a basic map, character figures you can move and basic dice rolls. Fantasy Grounds has better map functions, but even less support for game systems outside of D&D.

 

Tabletop Simulator due to the efforts of one very dedicated modder may ultimately be the best option. It may require a bit more brain power to get started with, but long term would probably provide the most enjoyment. Check him out through his YouTube site and then follow the links he provides in his video descriptions.

 

Finally there is the option of playing Play By Post, which involves the least learning, but is also the slowest option with regard to actual game play. That said, there seems to be an awful lot more character role play in Play By Post than in other gaming methods, including RL tabletop.

 

If you do get something going on line, please do consider me interested. I have plenty of time in my week and apparently a bottomless enthusiasm for Hero System.

Thanks for the super detailed response. I'll take a look at TT simulator via the link. I'll keep you in mind.

[assault]

23 minutes ago, james4177 said:

 

Thanks a ton for your answer! Champions now... is that the current product? I'd really love to run published scenarios can we expect Champions now to have those?

 

J--

 

Champions Now is a bit of an outlier. It's not part of the "family" in the same way as the other editions. Basically, a lot was changed.

 

Champions Complete is the "current product" in terms of the main continuity of editions.

 

If you want to run published scenarios, Champions Complete would be better. Champions Now is aimed at Do It Yourself campaigning. It's also much less compatible with other editions.

 

Of course you can also run 5e, or whatever set of rules you feel most comfortable with. Only some players care about "the latest!" edition.

[Tjack]

 Once you decide on what version of our beloved system you want to work with, and what platform you’ll be using in our time of social distance then you get yourself a big butterfly net and a big stick and hunt up some players.

  These are non trivial problems, especially these days. After all that you need to start deciding what genre both you want to run and have in your head for the foreseeable future but also one that fires up the imagination of the group. The negotiations may not be fun but they are vital.  I’ve seen perfectly good games crash and burn because either GM’s or players felt forced into doing something that was supposed to be fun.

   Try coming up with a few different styles of game that you will enjoy (Golden Age wacky, Dark Champions, Hard SF Future, whatever) then present them to your potential team and see what they say.  Even if they turn them all down you’ll get a better sense of what they do want.  Remember, it’s almost impossible to get this many people to all enthusiastically agree on what to have for lunch. So don’t be discouraged if this process takes a while, it WILL be worth it all in the long run.
 After you’ve got the genre, the power level, the set up and level of seriousness worked out then you get the joys of going one on one with these choosy buggers to come up with characters. (Keep that big stick handy.) The alternate choice is to hand out pre written characters. An option that has gone very well for other GM’s but I never had much luck with it on either side of the screen.

  When all of that work and aggravation is done you retreat to your fortress of solitude and begin to spin the tales of amazing adventure that you will present to your waiting and eager audience.
   Best of luck, you’ll need it, but it WILL all be worth it.

[pinecone]

2 hours ago, james4177 said:

 

Thanks a ton for your answer! Champions now... is that the current product? I'd really love to run published scenarios can we expect Champions now to have those?

 

J--

Kind of a tough answer. Champs Now! as far as I can tell is a "stand alone" version. Champs complete is (I believe) the current version. But if you have 4th of 5th, you can run great games with them instead. :) But if you want to buy support product Champs Complete is the way to go.

[DreadDomain]

3 hours ago, james4177 said:

 

Thanks a ton for your answer! Champions now... is that the current product? I'd really love to run published scenarios can we expect Champions now to have those?

 

J--

The current product is Champions Complete and if you loved Champions 4E and 5E, this is your best option when it comes to current edition. Of course, you could still play 4E or 5E and I suspect you could find players for them.

Champions Complete is more or less the repackaging of HERO 6E (the 2 big blue books) in a format that is not unlike Champions 4E. It's more easily digestible than the 2 tomes (even if I personally like them).

 

Champions Now is an oddity. It's the vanity project of Ron Edwards who started from Champions 3E and modified it with his own design preferences 

[Beast]

I's start w/ Champions complete pdf at 20$

then add the current Bundle of holding for 4th ed as this will give you tons of earlier source material that can be converted to 6th ed or go with 4th ed as the rules are there also
4th edition is a bit simpler in building characters
the bundle is currently at 30.52$ for everything

hurry as it will be going up

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Champions4Essentials2020