To start off, I have backed this project, purely out of my interest in game design, and the desire to support innovation and those trying to make a living in this impossible business. That being said, I'm also wondering about whether the retro post-system version of Champions will go far enough, since it seems to still have the point buy core concept. Your comment on immediacy and narrative doesn't just apply young people. I've been playing Champions since First Edition and I'd desperately love to have a version that focused more mechanics on enhancing actual game play, than on the deconstructive notion of mathematically engineering some perfectly codified simulated character.
I also think it would be interesting to discuss the differentiation between "Champions" and "Hero System" that seems clearly at the core of Ron's approach. Hero System allows for (with a LOT of work) creating a unified "physics" for building a game world, where you can position nearly any kind of action-adventure character types in clear, enumerated comparison with each other. "Champions" seems to be about something much more in the vein of simulating a feel/aesthetic of bronze age super-heroes in particular, allowing player expansion of these ideas. This to me is the core of modern, indie game design... rules designed to evoke a very particular feel/aesthetic/game experience focused on narrative outcomes generated "in play." The art not the engineering.
Why Now Champions Now?
in HERO System News
Posted
To start off, I have backed this project, purely out of my interest in game design, and the desire to support innovation and those trying to make a living in this impossible business. That being said, I'm also wondering about whether the retro post-system version of Champions will go far enough, since it seems to still have the point buy core concept. Your comment on immediacy and narrative doesn't just apply young people. I've been playing Champions since First Edition and I'd desperately love to have a version that focused more mechanics on enhancing actual game play, than on the deconstructive notion of mathematically engineering some perfectly codified simulated character.
I also think it would be interesting to discuss the differentiation between "Champions" and "Hero System" that seems clearly at the core of Ron's approach. Hero System allows for (with a LOT of work) creating a unified "physics" for building a game world, where you can position nearly any kind of action-adventure character types in clear, enumerated comparison with each other. "Champions" seems to be about something much more in the vein of simulating a feel/aesthetic of bronze age super-heroes in particular, allowing player expansion of these ideas. This to me is the core of modern, indie game design... rules designed to evoke a very particular feel/aesthetic/game experience focused on narrative outcomes generated "in play." The art not the engineering.
Here's hoping this gets funded.