Champions Begins: An Introduction to the Hero System

I'm glad to see Champions is still out there. It was my favourite Superhero RPG when the 3rd Edition came out back in the 80's, and I made binders worth of characters a game notes for it back in the day.

While I'm happy to see an intro primer project like this go out for free to introduce new players to the great Champions HERO system, I'm disappointed that the product has been poorly proofed and has some crucial errors.

The Champions Begins Character Book is a great way to slowly introduce the growing complexity of a HERO system character over other, simpler TTRPG's.

BUT, the file on Lionheart is missing the properly updated Maneuvers past version 3, thus missing all of the Martial Arts moves in the advanced versions from 4-5.

ALSO, the Combat Math section of Chapter One is terrible. Its sequencing is confusing and requires far more math than is needed.

(OCV+11)-3d6 Roll is a poor way to calculate the crucial target Number in the earlier paragraph of "11 OR LESS on a 3d6 Dice Roll is a Success"

I'd recommend that you present the 11 or less target Number as Modified by the comparison between the OCV and DCV of the subject skills in question.

For Example:

Street Knight has an OCV of 7. The Viper Agent they're trying to his has a DCV of 4. That's a difference of (7-4=3) +3

+3 to the Target Number of 11 is 14. So, a roll of 14 or less will strike the Viper Agent.

If reversed, the Viper Agent having a OCV of 5 (as listed in the example) trying to hit Street Knight (DCV 7) has a result of (5-7=-2) -2

In this case the Target Number moves from 11 to 9 or less (11-2)

As well, the math in the printed example is wrong. You have listed:

VIPER OCV: 5

OCV+11: 16

3d6 ROLL: 8

16-9=8!

16 - 9 Does not equal 8. it equals 7. In any case, the sequence still plays out correctly, as a roll of 8 is Under the Target Number of 9 as I listed above.

I'd really like to see product like this succeed and get Champions recognized as one off the Best TTRPGs out there, which I've always believed.

I hope you have a chance to review these issues and see to making some changes to an important primer like this.

Champions can be confusing enough as a non-level or classed based system as so many other prominent TTRPG's are. I'd hate to see an intro product like this fail because of bad editing.

Thank you for your time.

-Long time Champions fan, Tygermark

I would like to echo Tygermark's comments about presenting the maths and make the following suggestion:

I think it is worth framing it in a similar way, but the player will often not know the exact DCV of the target. The more "technically aware" player knows their own modified OCV and can say what DCV they hit from "how much they roll under 11 plus their OCV". Eg. if the player OCV is 5 and they roll an 8 (as above), they know that 8 is 9 under 11 + 5 = 16 so they hit DCV 9.

Another way to look at it is that a roll of 8 means you hit 11 - 8 = 3 more DCV than your OCV. if you roll (say) 13, you hit a DCV 2 less than your OCV. This OCV vs DCV difference is a intuitively more familiar factor. The player knows that if they roll low (under 11) they will hit even a tougher target. If over 11, they will only hit an easier target. If they roll 11, they will hit the same DCV as their OCV. It's a lot easier to think of the relative difficulty and know that "low is good, high is bad" and then work out how good or bad which involves smaller numbers.

Hah! made the same maths error as the book! 

"...they know that 8 is 8 under 11 + 5 = 16 so they hit DCV 8."