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The convention was PretzCon held here in Omaha, NE, this past May. I ran Champions and Icons: The Assembled Edition and am typically the only one who runs superhero RPGs during these events (most RPG players participate in D&D, Pathfinder, and Shadowrun). The next event is NukeCon this fall where I will be running Champions exclusively since I've retired my Icons campaign due to limited player interest.

Given how extensive the Hero System 6th Edition rules set is (unless you only use Hero Basic) and 5th Edition a.k.a. Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) was, am not as surprised as I thought that fans, players, GMs, and even writers are looking backwards towards earlier editions like 4th and 3rd. In my most recent game convention experience, I found myself using 4th and 3rd Edition rules more to create the Pre-Gen characters for players to use at the Champions table I ran over 5th and 6th Edition. Given that close to half of the players participating at my table hadn't played Champions before, using the simpler rules set paid off significantly, enabling them to play and have a lot of fun without being overly confused by the rules.

Hopefully, you will get the answer from him. In the meantime, I'm a firm believer of Occam's Razor where the simpler explanation of an occurrence is usually the better. With that in mind, a reasonable explanation would be that he's using 3e rules because that's the one he's most familiar with, so it would be the best for him to adapt from it. Champions 3e was arguably the most complete of the early rules systems while not being too rules heavy (e.g. 5th Edition).

You bring up some very insightful observations. If the aforementioned shocked reaction you describe is across the Hero Games senior staff, then it may be more indicative of a problem that is often observed in long-standing works such as novel series, television shows, films, and of course, game books. The problem is that the senior staff suffers some combination of being out-of-touch with what their fans/customers want, complacency to where they believe their own work requires no significant vetting, editing, or revision, or perhaps even an unwillingness to bring in new talent to explore new ideas. Was Champions Complete necessary? Given how unwieldy the Hero System 6th Edition rules were and that the company was not printing more copies of Hero Basic 6th Edition, the answer is definitely yes. From a style and design perspective, could it have been better? Again, absolutely yes. Was Fantasy Hero Complete necessary? Yes, since the intent seemed to be Hero Basic 6th Edition with a fantasy sourcebook as a stand-alone game. Did it have to be sub-par? No. Am equally puzzled regarding the poor aesthetic design and layouts from Champions Complete and Fantasy Hero Complete, especially since previous source book editions for 5th and 6th were exceptionally well done, even with grayscale interior art. ? At least Hero Games is making previous editions available on PDF for fans to select and use based on preference. ?

Thanks for the link. I did a precursory look at the rough draft and it's definitely something with a lot of refinement ahead of it across game mechanics (substance) and style (graphics and layout) if it's going to meet its desired intent and not look like something that recycled existing ideas poorly and attempts to pass itself off as something new and better.

I must have misinterpreted what was written on an earlier post, "Why Now Champions Now?" that read, "And, finally, four: get new players to try the Hero System, and old ones who have moved on to other games to come back and try it again. This last part is the important one to Champions Now: I wanted to publish a product that would simultaneously interest some older players, while encouraging the generally younger fans who purchase books from Indie Press Revolution to give a form of Champions a try." From my understanding, the project was drawing from 1st, 2nd and 3rd Editions into something to interest new players to try it and current and former Champions players to collect it. So again, it was misinterpretation on my part. The idea of a game book with no internal artwork, or even cover art, is somewhat disturbing, especially for the superhero genre. As a longtime Champions fan and collector, the last thing I would want to collect is a book that reads like a dry textbook....but then again, even textbooks have diagrams and images to illustrate its concepts.

As someone who had Fantasy Hero Complete at one point, the finished product was not that impressive, so you're probably correct in the idea that it didn't fare that well in terms of sales. The graphic design and interior art were disappointing to where they were major detractors that resulted in various negative comments being posted about it in game forums. The Fantasy Hero 6th Edition source book had a beautiful design and unique font-styled titled, yet Fantasy Hero Complete had a generic font title with cover art that was confusing (attempt at satire, maybe?) and was a significant step backwards from both 6th and 5th Edition Fantasy Hero source books. A concern I have is the latest Kickstarter project, Champions Now, intended to re-energize 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Editions of Champions, will result in something as graphically regrettable as Fantasy Hero Complete was cover to cover, further reducing the chances of a quality Star Hero Complete being produced later due to lackluster sales.

Hopefully, this Kickstarter project will prove successful in publishing a first-rate product that attracts new players and is something that longtime Champions players will want to add to their collection. At $20K, it's a pretty modest project and a concern is that the cover and interior artwork would be subpar. Mighty Protectors: Villains & Vigilantes 3.0 was a recent Kickstarter that resulted in a great product by Jeff Dee and Jack Herman; despite raising over $1 million, Palladium Books' Kickstarter for Robotech RPG Tactics was a disaster. Here's hoping for the former and not the latter!

Your character designs using Hero Machine 3 are AMAZING! It was great nostalgia seeing various Champions characters from across the various editions brought to full-color life again through the character art. Thanks for sharing them with all of us! ?

An option for consideration until print-on-demand gets resolved is to have the pdf file commercially printed and bound at a printer service like Office Depot or Staples. Granted, you're "paying twice" since you initially paid for the pdf file and then a second time for the printing, which can get expensive, but it's still an option. A long while back I had one of the out-of-print Champions books reprinted and it was nice having it ring bound since I was able to open to the desired page while laying it flat on a surface to take notes without having the book close on itself like a traditional soft-cover book.