GM_Champion

Whenever I read over my Champions source books, I'm struck by the range of activities ARGENT is involved in around the world -- how many pies it has its fingers in, and how viciously it digs into them. But from comments I've heard over the years, most Champions players who don't have those books don't fully appreciate what ARGENT is capable of, nor the range of uses it can be put to for character origins and backstory. In part this is due to there being no source book dedicated to that malevolent corporation. Hero Games did plan to publish one, but the severe downsizing the company went through several years ago curtailed that plan for the foreseeable future. There's actually substantial information extant, but it's dispersed over more than a dozen books.

I thought it might be interesting and helpful to the community to pull that info together and organize it for easy consumption here. What follows on this thread is a brief history of ARGENT; a summary of ARGENT's motivations, goals, and methods of operation; a rundown of its known organizing structure, with a little logical extrapolation based on relevant precedents; ARGENT front companies described in the books; an overview of ARGENT's extensive activities around the globe; its interactions with various superhumans and supercrime groups -- those it works with, is interested in, and its rivals and enemies; a list of official supervillains (and superheroes) who owe their superhuman abilities to ARGENT science, and how they came to be; and a collection of devices commonly used by ARGENT's operatives.

For anyone interested in looking up this information themselves, the core history and description of ARGENT appears in Champions Universe. Significant additional info is in Champions Universe: News Of The World, Champions Worldwide, Monster Island, and Teen Champions. Smaller amounts are in the Champions Villains trilogy, Hidden Lands, Millennium City, UNTIL: Defenders Of Freedom, and VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent. ARGENT is also briefly mentioned in Book Of The Destroyer, Champions Beyond, Champions Of The North, Cops Crews And Cabals, DEMON: Servants Of Darkness, and Vibora Bay.
 
Because there are substantial differences to how ARGENT is depicted in Champions Online compared to our pen-and-paper game's books, I'm confining myself just to data found in the latter. But I'd be happy to add info related to the MMO if anyone's interested.

The Meatgrinder was rechristened with a new name to honor the Princess of Drinax during the voyage to Hilfer, and the travel time allowed repairs and healing to occur.
 
The Imperium Treasure Ship had made a poor landing in the wastelands of Hilfer, and the remaining crew readied what defense they could while awaiting rescue, knowing it might take months to arrive, if ever.
 
@Durzan Malakim summarized the challenges facing the PCs pretty well. Here is some additional commentary.
 
The captain of the treasure ship is a martinet a bit reminiscent of the one from the movie Mr. Roberts, mixed with the British officer from Bridge on the River Kwai. He’s currently unconscious courtesy of his First Officer, Commander Mari Jagat, after I did my best to portray him as the insufferable prig he was.
 
She’s described in the module as the slightly Mary Sue-ish protagonist of a series of science fiction military action-adventure novels occurring parallel to the PCs activities, apparently an Honor Harrington homage. Further complicating things, she hero worships Brigadier Meson thanks to his “war hero” Positive Reputation but didn’t at first believe the “pirate captain” she was talking to was him even after he revealed his true identity, throwing quotes from his own biography in his face as to why her crew was not going to meekly surrender and letting the PCs know about the armed nuclear device.
 
Further complicating matters is the surviving Marine Commander Harc, who is paranoid that the ship was infiltrated by one or more Zhodani spies (apparently true from what the PCs later discovered) and refuses to accept the commands of any Navy officers, thinking they are all compromised puppets, and he’s not too sure about his fellow marines either. He and an unknown number of surviving marines are in full battledress and ready to fight pirates to the bitter end.
 
There is also a spy from the megacorp General Development Company (GeDeCo), running a scheme as well, but the PCs don’t know who it is. As one of the PCs also works for GeDeCo, he received some text messages from the spy on his personal comm device as a professional courtesy (and perhaps worried they would be killed if the PCs weren’t aware of their presence).

(Redleaf joins in harmony to Savinien's whistle.)
 
I have *always* wanted to play Talislanta. If only there were some way...

Re: Talislanta Hero [6E]
 
Wow. I didn't realize it, but all the Talislanta books I have are the First Edition ones.
 
Crazy.
 
Someone should run a Talislanta game online.
 
:innocent whistle:

Hello everyone! We have a variety of projects going on at Hero Games right now, both for quarter one of 2021 and for the year as a whole. I wanted to let you know about them, get your input, and ask if there is anything you would like to see created by Hero Games in the coming year. Of course, I can’t promise you we will act on those suggestions! Only that we will listen and do what we can, given the limited time and resources that we have. Please feel free to comment.
UPCOMING NEW RELEASES
The following three projects have been turned into us, have been approved, and are in various levels of production right now. (If you have submitted a project to us and don’t see it listed here, don’t be alarmed! We simply haven’t gotten to it yet. These things take time.)
Western Hero: Rough and Ready Roleplaying – This is a joint project between Kestrel Arts and Hero Games. Written by Christopher Taylor and based on work by Matt Forbeck, it’s an exhaustive, rules complete 276 page Hero System 6th Edition book. It has already been through layout, editing, and (due to the subject matter) sensitivity reading, and will be made available physically and electronically through DriveThruRPG, Amazon, Indie Press Revolution, and the Hero Games store. A Hero Designer Character Pack for this product will also be available for sale.
Institute For Human Advancement: Pride & Prejudice – Written by Thomas Stadley, this book is a 50,000 word Champions 6th Edition source book detailing the history, structure, agents, and technology of the infamous Champions Universe villain organization known as the IHA. It is currently being edited by AC, and will be made available physically and electronically through DriveThruRPG and Amazon, and electronically through the Hero Games store. A Hero Designer Character Pack for this product will also be available for sale.
The Hero System Book of Templates II – Written by Christopher Hackler, this is the sequel to Chris’ popular Hero System Book of Templates. I’m editing this book myself right now, and it’s excellent. At 33,000 words it’s even better than the original, and extremely useful to new players. It will be available in electronic and physical form from DriveThruRPG and Amazon, and electronically from the Hero Games store. A Hero Designer Character Pack for this product will also be available for sale.
SECTIONAL BOOKS
Steve Long and I have come up with a new publication concept for releasing Hero System books, and we are going to try applying this concept to a couple of projects this year and see it works out, financially as well as artistically. I’m calling these “sectional books,” as they will be released in sections that stand alone as electronic products, but can be combined in the end and released as a complete print-on-demand book on DriveThru and Amazon. The stand-alone products won’t have any original artwork, but the final book they will be combined into will have an original cover and at least some original interior artwork (though they will be softcover black-and-whites).
Subject matter for these books will be selected in part based on their suitability for the format: meaning, they can be released in sections, then those sections can be combined into a unified, consistent final product (not a magazine or the like). The first two will be written by Steve, and will be Champions International – a collection of chapters about imaginary countries with exist in the Champions Universe – and Martial Enemies, which will detail a wide variety of martial arts characters suitable for Champions, Ninja Hero, Pulp Hero, or any of a number of other genres. He’s already turned in the first section Champions International: Lugendu, which AC is getting ready right now.
If the sectional book projects goes well, Hero Games will launch a Patreon account to support even more work in that vein, plus provide exclusive content to Hero System fans who choose to become backers. (But we’ll have to see how the project goes before I commit to that!)
KICKSTARTER
At this point I don’t have any plans in 2021 a Kickstarter project. I’m willing to hear suggestions if you folks have any. But please keep in mind that the Hero Games KS account is reserved at this time for “big” projects. By this I mean comparatively large, rules-complete works which require no additional books to play. So I mean projects that are like Champions Now or Fantasy Hero Complete, but not Book of the Empress or Champions Villains III. I’m open to the idea of licensed intellectual property projects; though, again, I can’t make any promises. Actually getting licensed IP is an extremely difficult and time-consuming undertaking that I have only succeeded at twice (once here at Hero Games, and once at my own imprint High Rock Press); though behind the scenes I tried one dozen other times over the years unsuccessfully. Success requires either a perfect alignment of circumstances, or large sums of money; and the former is by nature unlikely, the later - nonexistent.
HALL OF CHAMPIONS
So far you fans have contributed forty creations to our Hall of Champions DriveThruRPG community content program! Please continue, feel free to contribute to the creative legacy of Hero Games, and maybe make a few bucks along the way.
-Jason Walters, Publisher

Greetings Herodom, TheQuestionMan here working on his Champions of Vancouver Vol. 5 Campaign Setting and I ran head first into a brick wall.
 
British Columbia, Canada has one of the longest coast lines in North America. Yet Champions of the North, Hidden Lands, and Atlantis barely mention the largest and deepest ocean in the world.
 
A friend sent me a link to a new film coming out call Pacific Rim. Looks like Godzilla-ish mixed with Giant Robots. Anyway back to the Pacific Ocean on the door step of Vancouver, BC.
 
It seems to me that it would be a great place for a race of Mermen, Homo Mermanus, Sea Folk, Atlanteans, Lemurians, etcetera, etcetera So here is a rough outline of what I have decided populates the Pacific Ocean.
 
A group of hardy Atlantean Colonists explored the Seven Seas finally settled in the Northern Pacific Ocean. The colony thrived, grew, and eventually became a thriving metropolis under the waves. The vastness of the ocean and its depths prevented its discovery for several millennia.
 
At the time of WWII the war in the Pacific threatened the safety of the city and its outlying communities. Using advanced Atlantean Technology and Magic they sealed the city and the outlying communities in domes. Salvaging the land dwelers Warmachines the created a Shadow Fleet and quietly aided the Allies against the Axis until the end of WWII. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Horrified them and awoke monsters in the depths of the Marianas Trench.
 
The Atlantean City State was almost destroyed. Resentment grew, but the land dwellers ignorance of their presence acted as a shield against greater conflict. As time passed the land dwellers began Nuclear weapons tests, on he Pacific Proving Grounds, in the Marshall Islands.
 
Even worse was the dumping of sewer waste and garbarge becoming caught in the northern gyre creating vast dead zones. Finally in 2000, the King of this unnamed nation state sent a diplomatic envoy to Atlantis to seek Council. Surprised and pleased that the lost colony had survived and thrived they recieved lessons in Recent History, World Politics, and Current Events.
 
The Envoy was shocked by the Atlantean position to the land dwellers befoulment of their home and poisoning of their world. The Envoy returned with an Embassy from Atlantis, the Royal Princess, and her Personal Bodyguard. The Atlanteans were stunned by the size of the population they found and the technology and magic. The old gods did not rule here and neither did the Elemental Church.
 
The people were industrious and deeply concerned with the Land Dwellers world. The Elected Prince and his Council with Input of the Princess decided it was time to rejoin the people of this world. An embassy was sent to the United Nations in New York to establish relations. In the mean time the Elected Prince sent Agents into the World. Using the wealth aquired from the Sea, their Advanced Technology, and innate Mystical Abilities. They established themselves in every aspect of the Land Dweller world.
 
 
More later...
 
 
QM

1) I'm not aware of links to forum threads that compare the various Star HERO editions.
2) I can only refer to Star HERO 6E, and cite specific Powers that are appropriate to Transhumanist sci-fi. Note: Transhumanism isn't explicitly discussed in Star HERO 6E, but Cyberpunk is discussed. Here are a few page references from Star HERO 6E that discuss "transhumanist" topics without stating the term:
 
Cyberpunk genre: pp 16 - 18 Transform power: pp 82 Alien Species chapter, specifically, Creating Alien Species, Super Intellects and uplifted animals: pp 150 Computers as Characters: pp 193 Biotechnology: pp 197 - 198 Nanotechnology: pp 199  

All,
 
The Discord continues to grow - we're over 300 members now, and we are having, and have had, many awesome HEROic discussions!
 
https://discord.gg/HcUJvJH
 
Jump in, the active points are fine!
 

All,
 
The Discord continues to grow - we're over 300 members now, and we are having, and have had, many awesome HEROic discussions!
 
https://discord.gg/HcUJvJH
 
Jump in, the active points are fine!
 

All,
 
The Discord continues to grow - we're over 300 members now, and we are having, and have had, many awesome HEROic discussions!
 
https://discord.gg/HcUJvJH
 
Jump in, the active points are fine!
 

To add to roles not covered, and to piggyback on "science officer," I am reminded that Star Trek, both original and TNG, often had guest stars be geologists, xenobiologists, botanists, and various other science specialists - you could be one of those, with a "side order" of other things/skills.
 
Likewise Cultural Anthropologists who evaluate a whole society rather than be "the face" who skill rolls a single NPC into an info dump.
 
Finally, I don't know whether the Terran Empire has Universal Translators as commonplace like in Star Trek, but one of my favorite sci-fi characters is Daniel from Stargate - linguist, sociopolitical analyst, archaeologist, etc.
 
The Galaxy might run on Galactic English as a lingua Franca, but I have to imagine that, were there no universal translator, many backwater worlds, and some economic powerhouses, would prefer their own languages.
 
(And yes I know that even now in 2020, Google and other companies are trying to have real-time audio translation)
 
So... Science specialist, linguist, anthropologist, etc... Some possibilities...

Dark Champions is on TV right now - it's called Arrow. [rimshot]

Extinction Event is also pretty cool.

AGE system is pretty much Traveller with roll-high a la most modern d20 games, and also Mongoose Traveller, and it adds the Stunt Die.
 
I approve of 3d6 roll-high.
 
However, in these days of "all games are 5e or PF2 at conventions" (and maybe Cyberpunk REd and Shadowrun and Call of Cthulhu) finding AGE is about as rare as finding HERO.
 
That said, I hope the Expanse sells gangbusters and encourages more RPG producers to grow the science fiction pie.
 
(And that 7e HERO, when it comes, moves to roll-high for everything so we can get all the RPG newbies 5e D&D yanked out of the mainstream...)

Well it would theoretically take place in what the Hero System timeline would be "Solar Hero" which has never had a setting book published. 
But some of the material from the Alien War book would be very helpful (Alien War takes place just a bit after "Solar Hero" when humanity has finally created faster-then-light drives). 
Form Alien Wars you could use a lot of the weapons, equipment and gear. Some of the ships (if you just cut out the warp drives, etc...). Like The Expanse, humanity doesn't have anti-gravity at that time and most space weapons are still ballistic weapons and nukes. Heck, a buffed Xenovore could be used as a Human/protomolecule hybrid creature (just remove the tail and stinger).
For the rest of it, the Star Hero book would give you pretty much everything else needed. 
 
PS. Love the series! Please post here once you get the RPG and let us (me) know how it is!

The keys to victory in Space Battles are Beehive Hairdos and short skirts.

Remember to buy Breakfall for all the time you'll be thrown out of your chairs in battle.

Another variant.  This one found on the web:

We have that "Hero in 2 Pages" PDF right here on the website for free download, along with a bunch of other free player-intro documents.
 
https://www.herogames.com/files/file/439-hero-in-2-pages/
 
https://www.herogames.com/files/file/4-intro-to-the-hero-system/
 
https://www.herogames.com/files/file/445-champions-quick-reference-6e/
 
https://www.herogames.com/files/file/367-fantasy-hero-primer/
 
https://www.herogames.com/files/file/479-fantasy-hero-basic/
 

There's a "HERO in 2 pages" PDF on drivethrurpg.com.
 
With some layout/art/presentation updates it could be a snazzy 4-page (one folded 11x17 piece of paper) intro to HERO.
 
Add some character sheets and boom.
 
Think Beginner Boxes like for 5e D&D, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Spectaculars, and others. Done right, high production values.
 
Inside, "Now that you've enjoyed playing the Champions (Defender et al), design your own hero with Champions Complete, available at gamestores everywhere!"
 
Onward and more HEROic!

I take the opposite approach, I think all the other products should be called x Champions.  Star Champions.  Western Champions.  Fantasy Champions.

It is, very much easier
 
But we are not talking about the same aspect of the game.
 
Everytime the "easy" question comes up discussion swerves into chargen or disagreements about being "easy" in play.
 
But that is not where the major damage comes from.  The primary failure is game/world/adventure generation.
 
Popular RPG (D&D, CoC, etc):
1 Players buy new game.
2 Players decide who will GM and when to start.
3 SHORT intro chapter give everyone enough information to understand the game premise.
4 Players build PCs using prebuilt abilities, equipment, spells and such balanced for the game.
5 GM selects one of dozens of prebuilt adventures or quickly assembles one using prebuilt creature/threats.
6 Game begins, this routinely happens within the same week.
 
HERO
 
1 Players buy game
2 Players decide who will GM
3 GM designs/stats practically everything from how magic works to creatures (weeks of work)
4 GM explains how all the stuff he designed works.
5 Players then design PCs based on 3&4
6 GM then adjusts adventures to account for PCs custom builds.
7 Game begins weeks to months later
 
The problem is that brand new HERO purchasers rarely get past HERO step 3.
By the time the GM gets enough material designed to actually play they usually discover the rest of the players are 6 weeks into the D&D game they started while waiting.
 
HERO  is a very easy game to run, and runs no slower than any other including D&D.  If a HERO game runs slow it is usually caused by player indecision.
 
The upcoming Content program should help new players be able to overcome this by allowing access to prebuilt adventures and content that can actually be played at the table. But it won't solve everything.
Once material is available, we will need to start running these prepackaged adventures in the public.  As in at your FLGS and Cons.
 
There needs to be interest generated that will motivate stores to look for the books and stock them.  Enough demand that will either draw the books into general distribution or prompt the FLGS to open another account for a single product.
 
Something to move HERO out of the boutique mode and back into popular gaming. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yeah, the causes for decline are numerous and varied, but the lack of a rebound--like D&D has enjoyed--can be summed up with "No resources put into the brand", both in terms of official supplemental material (it pretty much just stopped after FHC), and in terms of evangelizing, administrating, and advertising online streaming akin to Critical Role and organized play akin to D&D Adventurer's League.

During the discussion on the thread, The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated, it was brought to my attention that not only were many folks unfamiliar with that fantasy setting published by Hero Games, but the degree to which other books in the Fantasy Hero line were directly connected to it, providing supporting elaboration for various facets of its world. It occurred to me that Hero's signature sci-fi setting might also suffer from a similar misconception. Just as with the Turakian Age, most of Hero's science-fiction books use the Terran Empire as their default reference, in some cases even more than their fantasy books do for TA.
 
The centerpiece of the line is, or course, the Terran Empire source book. While the majority of the book details this future era when Humanity has forged a major interstellar empire from a human perspective, it also spends considerable time surveying the history, culture, and technology of other races of the galaxy, major and minor, including character templates. Not everyone has noticed that Steve Long co-wrote TE with sci-fi author and game designer, James Cambias, who brings his rich imagination and narrative style to the project.
 
Scourges Of The Galaxy, written by Jason Walters, provides extensive backgrounds and full games stats for a host of NPCs, solo or part of organizations, drawn directly from the galaxy of the TE era. In many cases they're elaborations of people or groups mentioned in Terran Empire. Another book, Worlds Of Empire, surveys nearly two dozen alien planets both within and outside the Empire. Quite a few of those are notably exotic compared to Earth. The environment and geography of each planet is laid out, including planetary Mercator projection maps. In a number of cases the planets have native inhabitants, whose history and culture are spelled out in even richer detail than in the core book. Spacers Toolkit provides descriptions, stats and, often, illustrations for even more weapons, equipment, and vehicles used during the Terran Empire era, both by humans and aliens.
 
Other Hero books, while not set in the TE era, build on precedents established for the Hero Universe's future. Alien Wars by Allen Thomas rolls the timeline back a few centuries, to the human race's protracted war for survival versus the horrific Xenovores. Besides providing a less "imperial" human society, the book adds even more alien races to the galaxy's population.
 
Shifting out of the Star Hero line, Champions Beyond elaborates the "space/cosmic" side of the company's present-day, superhero-dominated Earth, by infusing most of the aliens from their sci-fi books (adjusted for this earlier period in their history), and adding even more. Nearly eighty species are mentioned in that book, with details ranging from a couple of paragraphs up to multi-page chapters which include home world description comparable to what's in Worlds Of Empire, history, culture, technology, and representative individuals. CB also introduces such classic comic-book sci-fi features as super-advanced aliens, planet-eaters, and "cosmic entities."
 
For a "Legion of Superheroes" - type campaign, Galactic Champions moves the time line forward past the Terran Empire period, to when Mankind and other interstellar civilizations have formed a vast Galactic Federation. Various "superheroes" and "supervillains" are provided, again based on the history and races established throughout Hero's space books.
 
The Hero Games website used to host several free supplements to its Star Hero line, which can still be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Several forms for help creating and recording info about alien species, planets, and star sectors are linked to here. You can also download a simple application to randomly generate sectors of your own galaxy, based on the tables from the Star Hero genre book, from here. Finally, on this webpage you'll find links to free color "astropolitical" maps of the Milky Way galaxy at the time of the Terran Empire, in several sizes/resolutions.

Thanks to the popularity of Marvel Comics' X-Men series, and the movies and television shows spawned from them, many players of Champions and other supers RPGs want to play superheroes with a "mutant" background. Marvel has long used mutants as a metaphor for racism, as they suffer persecution at the hands of frightened "normal humans." The official Champions Universe doesn't feature the kind of widespread anti-mutant paranoia so often displayed in Marvel's universe. To most people on  Champs Earth genetic mutation is just one source of super powers, and mutants are viewed as no better or worse than other superhumans. However, there definitely is a minority of people who do hold such fears; and one official group is particularly willing and able to exploit those fearful people, and mold them into a force dangerous to all mutants, and any other superhumans who would stand in support of them.
 
To date there's been no PnP source book dedicated to the Institute for Human Advancement (IHA). One was planned before the severe downsizing of Hero Games several years ago, but AFAIK there are no current plans to publish one. Not a lot of information has appeared in other books, and what there is is scattered; but collectively it provides enough potential for some intriguing plot uses for the IHA, or a similar group, in any superheroic campaign which features mutants, aliens, or any other minority on Earth with special abilities who are subject to mistrust and fear. When one includes not just the possible permutations of the IHA, but the nature and history of forces opposed to or potentially allied with them, the possibilities multiply for uses of a group like this which may not all have occurred to GMs. Not to mention the character depths players might plumb who like their PCs angsty.   So I thought it might be helpful to pull that information together here.
 
The core info about the Institute appears in Champions Universe. While the current edition of that book is for the Sixth Edition of the Hero System, the previous Fifth Edition book includes some significant material relevant to the IHA which wasn't reprinted. Other small but valuable data are mentioned in Book Of The Empress, Champions Battlegrounds, Champions Universe: News Of The World, Champions Villains Vols. 1 & 2, Conquerors Killers And Crooks, Millennium City, Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth, Teen Champions, Vibora Bay, and VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent.