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There have been several fan write-ups of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian for D&D, so here's my interpretation of the famous character synonymous with the sword and sorcery genre for Fantasy Hero. Included is the Hero Designer file, Adobe pdf, and Microsoft Excel to use, edit, and print as you see fit.

Enjoy! 🙂

Recently, I came across a Kelek action figure on display from the Dungeons & Dragons toy series and got inspired to do a character write-up using the statistics adapted from The Shady Dragon Inn module. I used Fantasy Hero (3rd Edition rules) with 75 points as base, 75 points of Disadvantages, and went from there. Below is the link to the WinZip file that contains the Hero Designer file, Adobe pdf, and Microsoft Excel version to edit and/or print. Enjoy! 😉

Some complications for your consideration:

"Fight or Flight" - After a certain amount of damage is sustained (e.g. 25% STUN or BODY), the player has to make an EGO roll. If successful, the player continues the battle. If unsuccessful, the bio-armor takes over and tries to make the player leave out of survival instinct, or worse yet, deactivates into an inert state, sort of like when an animal pretends to be dead when threatened. This would also require the player to reactivate it (skill roll or something along those lines).

"Primal Instincts" - On the flipside, the bio-armor could automatically activate and rush-in full-tilt and fight to the death when a child or offspring is threatened as a variation on the Enraged or Berserk complication out of an innate instinct, comparable to the "Mama Bear" that will fight to protect her cubs.

"Touchy Digestive System" - This is a continuation of the aforementioned complication where the player must consume double the amount of food to sustain the bio-armor. You can add in that certain foods (yet to be discovered when eaten or you can come up with a tentative list) cause a random mutation, comparable to how red Kryptonite created a random mutation on Superman. This is comparable to how some people break out in hives due to certain foods and some may even go into anaphylactic shock and require medication intervention. It's up to you to make the complication serious (e.g. anaphylactic shock requiring some type of boost) or humorous (e.g. food needs to be taken out a.s.a.p. through purgative or diuretic drugs that the player carries in case of an emergency)

On 1/3/2019 at 6:43 PM, Pariah said:

For the first time in literally decades, I've been looking back at the Third Edition of Champions. It's the version I learned to play on, and there are times when i miss the simplicity--especially as I contemplate teaching new people to play. So I've begun building characters again. And I've got to tell you, here's something really cool about building a character with pencil and paper. I've had to relearn how a few things work, like END (Holy cow! How did my heroes ever stay awake for more than a Turn?!) and proper Elemental Controls, but I'm now able to create a new character in ~30 minutes, start to finish. It's been a lot of fun.

 

Anyway, I've created a handful of characters under the 3rd Ed rules, and I'm going to post a few of them here. Feedback is, of course, welcome.

Well, Pariah, I'm following your lead and am simplifying my previous 5th and 6th Edition write-ups to 3rd Edition. I really miss the simplicity also, coupled with nostalgia, and is much easier to introduce new players (I recently posted about the topic). Here are a few samples of what I've started, and will post the Hero Designer and Excel files in the downloads section once I'm done. 🙂

Superman.pdf Firebrand.pdf WonderWoman_Modern.pdf

On 6/25/2022 at 9:11 PM, BNakagawa said:

6e disappointed me. They made some sweeping changes and failed to playtest or stress test them adequately.

 

Everyone just shrugs and says it's the GMs responsibility to ban/limit these problems at their tables, but that just worsens one of the most persistent complaints about Champions, is that it puts too much of a load on the GM.

You've clearly articulated what I was thinking...thank you! I remember putting a lot of effort into simplifying 5th or 6th Edition to make it more player-friendly for the conventions, and over time it was more like 3rd or 4th Edition with some 5th or 6th Edition mechanics like Unified Power, MegaScale, and Resistant Protection. Based on my previous experience, introducing 5th or 6th Edition to brand-new players was difficult; the textbook-like presentation of the rules made it more so.

If I were to introduce brand-new players to Champions or Hero System in general in the future, it would probably be with 3rd Edition game materials. In terms of style and presentation, they read like game books and not textbooks...and the touch of nostalgia always helps. 🙂

When I first introduced superhero RPGs to a friend who's coming with me to a local game convention in late July, they were Champions and ICONS. She easily picked up on the rules-light ICONS within a few minutes and Champions (5th or 6th) made her head spin from all the number crunching and variations of game mechanics. Later on, she took one of my comments to heart about how 5th and 6th Edition books often read more like textbooks versus an actual game book. She then asked me something along the lines of, "Well, when was the last time Champions was fun for you?" My answer was 3rd Edition. 🤔

Has anyone else experienced that awkward realization? I remember a few members of this forum using much earlier editions like second while incorporating some of the mechanics from later editions like MegaScale or Unified Power, and am curious if there are more who experienced that moment.

Is this balance chart for a future campaign using Champions Now, or 5th or 6th Edition? If it's the former, since Champions Now draws a lot from the earlier editions that I've previously used, those point guidelines look about right for 3rd Edition. 🙂

If it's the latter, page 126 of the 5th Edition Champions source book by Aaron Allston has a comprehensive chart for point levels, skill rolls, combat values, defense ratings, and so on for low-powered, standard, high-powered, etc. characters that may give you better fidelity. Similarly, page 9 of Champions Complete that uses the 6th Edition rules has a similar guideline for the power level (Low, standard, cosmic, etc.)

Hi, Everyone! I posted a group of elemental themed villains inspired by the 1980s cartoon Inhumanoids and the Calvin & Hobbes cartoon strip. Included are the Hero Designer Files (6th Edition) and Microsoft Word formats. They are the following;

Magmax - Lava elemental, inspired by the character Metlar (450 pts)

Revenant - Bone golem, inspired by the character Decompose (400 pts)

Trellis - Plant elemental, inspired by the character Tendril (400 pts)

Snow Goon #1 and #2 - Inspired by Calvin & Hobbes' creations one winter day that went mad! (250 pts each)

Enjoy! 😀

I posted the 6th Edition write-ups for Green Lantern Corps members Boodikka and Kilowog. The file contains their Hero Designer files and Microsoft Word write-ups. Enjoy! 😉

Here's a villain trio I developed for Champions, known as the Apex. They are the following for 6th Edition:

Technovore, loosely inspired by Mechanon - 500 pts

Simian Rex, a cybernetically augmented Ape Guardian from the Hero System Bestiary - 400 pts

Enforcer Drone - Technovore's battle drones that hide a dark, insidious secret - 120 pts

The WinZip file contains the Microsoft Word and Hero Designer files.

Enjoy! 😉

a) Give your episodes titles?

Yes, but only for my personal frame of references. The players typically do not know the title.

b) Do you give origins to all your villains

Only if requested by the player during a pause in the scenario, such as after a skirmish and the players reconsolidate, meet NPCs, and so on. I try to work the villain background in if it is an original creation of mine or if tje villain is someone the players are not familiar with from the DC or Marvel Universe.

c) Are your important NPCs stated out?

No. The NPCs are typically my "voice" as the GM to provide background information and serve as a contact, but can be changed out readily.

d) Do you go above and beyond the duty with special props for any of your games?

I use HeroClix figures and customize them as needed as superhero and supervillain figures, comparable to how D&D players and DMs use miniatures and figures. I also use maps by laminating HeroClix maps and draw my own as needed.

e) Anything else?

I typically try to work in a villain, even in a brief cameo appearance, that I can impersonate with my voice. Of the villains I've used, Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living from the cartoon series Thundercats, remains my best impersonation, especially when he monologues. The nostalgia from players who remember him is a fun mix of humor and cringing over having to fight him. 😉

22 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I never knew much about Ms Victory

From my understanding, she was a superhero from the Golden Age of comics by Frank Z. Temerson's Helnit Publishing Company in 1941 that would become public domain. Americomics (AC) would later use her as the main character for its FemForce title that started in the 1980s and continues today. I used to collect those comics in the 1990s so the character write-ups are out of nostalgia from that simpler time of my life. 😉

I've updated the Hero Designer files and added 5th Edition versions with the 6th Edition write-ups for Ms. Victory (Wayne and Burke).

I just posted a write-up for the public domain superheroine Yankee Girl as featured in various titles such as FemForce. The character format is both in 5th and 6th Edition with their corresponding Hero Designer files.

Enjoy! 😉

2 hours ago, Grailknight said:

If there was no Champions but other publishers had filled the void? 

Yes! I didn't realize until I read the 5th Edition Champions source book and Silver Age Sentinels that so many superhero RPGs had been published over the years. Am curious to see what, if any, other superhero RPGs others would have played such as Marvel FASERIP, Villains & Vigilantes a.k.a. Mighty Protectors, DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes, and so on. 🙂

It was one of those "what if" questions someone asked when she found out that I had collected/played Champions in its various forms for over 30 years. For me, it would have been DC Heroes published by Mayfair Games since I played it often my first year or two in college and the game support materials were available at the various game stores I shopped (I would transition to run Champions/Fantasy Hero in the latter two). Nowadays, it would be ICONS, which I host at the local game events.

So, if Champions never existed, what superhero RPG would you have played (or be playing today)? 🤔

It's been a mixed bag of everything the past few days (trailers included):

A Very British Scandal on Amazon (Season 1)

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (I just finished this last night with a friend 🙂)

Thinner

Secret Window

22 hours ago, steriaca said:

Nice reimagines. Too bad they are less grey then there 4ed counterparts.

Yes, since they were planned to be supporting cast for stand-alone scenarios at a game convention, I made them more along the lines of, "a couple with unwanted power who made some bad choices early on, but at their core are still decent" instead of making them much darker like Martin and Wendy Byrde from Netflix's Ozark, but you always have that option.😉

I finished another side project which is a re-imagined version of the classic villain duet Thunder & Lightning (Margaret and John Harrington, respectively) as Assault & Battery for 6th Edition. Assault (Margaret Westfeld) is inspired by Thunder as a physical powerhouse and Battery (John Westfeld) is an electrical energy projector based off of Lightning.

One of the scenarios I developed had them working for a government sponsored team known as Task Force Sentinel that is responsible for protecting the families of superheroes in their civilian identities from threats like VIPER. Enjoy! 😉

Given licensing and how DC is owned by Warner Brothers, it is not likely to occur. As others have mentioned, there have been previous DC-licensed RPGs by Mayfair Games, West End Games, and a brief licensing agreement with Green Ronin Publishing that used the Mutants & Masterminds system, so if it was going to occur, it would have happened many, many years ago.

There are plenty of fan sources/write-ups in the downloads section here on the website, along with other fan-sites (https://www.sysabend.org/champions/gnborh/index.html) that offer a variety of different versions of the same characters. It's up to you to use as-is or modify to better suit your campaign, just as some comic series writers made their character nearly god-like (Grant Morrison/Batman) or a bit of an inexperienced punching-bag (e.g. Green Lantern/Kyle Rayner).😉

I finally finished my on-again/off-again project...re-imagining the paranoid and trigger-happy Exterminators from the Champions 4th Edition source book Alien Enemies that are posted in the downloads area. Included are Microsoft Word and Hero Files of the characters. Here's a quick snapshot of the re-imagined characters:

From Champions Complete:

The body text was set in 10 pt. Minion Pro Condensed and the headers were set in 24, 18, 14, and 12 pt. Gil Sans Bold Condensed.

Skill and Power headers were set in 12 pt. Minion Pro Bold Condensed.

The index was set in 8 pt. Minion Pro Regular and 14 pt. Gil Sans Bold Condensed.

The various core Hero System 6th Edition rule books (e.g. Hero System Bestiary, Hero Basic) use a variety of fonts such as Comic Sans for Character names, Arial (or something very similar) for character write-ups, and Minion Pro for body text, so it's a bit beyond my knowledge base to list every type of font and size for the headings, sideboard information, and sample characters.

Good luck! 😉

Batman and Robin in 1997 that featured George Clooney as Batman quickly comes to mind for this topic. The portrayals by Chris O'Donnell as Robin, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, and Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl just added to the silly campiness and mediocre story-telling.

Clooney to his credit would later admit that it was a bad film overall. It wouldn't be until 2005 when the Batman film franchise restarted featuring Christian Bale.