Champions, eh?

[Pollip]

Hey. I was wandering through Half-Price Books the other day, and saw this book titled "Champions: The Super roleplaying game!" Dnd but with super heroes?! It was off the store shelf and in the car with me in mere seconds.

I've been thumbing through it, and although the system needlessly complicated and rather counter-intuitive (3 is the best you can roll, and 18 is the worst), it really allows for waay more character options than Dnd. Dungeons and Dragons is my first tabletop RPG, so I'm not terribly versed in random games from the seventies, but I was wondering if anyone else has ever played it, and how it measures up to Dnd.

[BRC]

The rolling system sounds similar to Paranoia, where you want to roll under your skill for a succsess, but I don't know where 3 and 18 come from. And Paranoia is possibly the opposite of needlessly complicated, since its built for lazy GM's.

[Shas aia Toriia]

3 and 18, like rolling for your stats.

[Tiberian]

Played it, and enjoy it. Honestly though, I'd go with 5th Edition (available now at your LGS). You can pretty much do anything with it, but if there is another game available for the genre (DnD/Fantasy Hero) go with the specialized game.

[Dairun Cates]

If memory serves correctly, Champions is the direct predecessor to the Hero and Fuzion systems. Handles a bit like Gurps. Lot of character options and a roll-under mechanic, but your gun and driving skills are trained in literally one specific model and not a series of them.

[Pollip]

The rolling system only uses d6s; rolling for stuff generally involves rolling 3d6, generating the 3-18 range.

Didn't know there was a 5th edition, mine's 3rd or 4th I think. I'll have to look into that.

Also, in case anyone cares, I made a character who can make drinking straws explode by snapping his fingers. So, so far I'm reeeally liking Champions.

[RTGoodman]

If it's like HERO System, then it's probably pretty good. I haven't actually played a game of HERO, but I've created a couple of characters and read through a couple of the books, and I like it a lot. The "roll-under" mechanic may seem weird for a while, but once you get it, it's easier to remember. I have to say, if I didn't play D&D, one of those HERO-esque systems would probably be what I went for.

[HidaTsuzua]

Champions is the predecessor of the Hero System (where it is a setting). Basically it's a super-hero game. However because super-heros tend to run into everything from AIs to zombies, there's a flexible system to build (nearly) everything. Later editions (Hero System) emphasis this fact and it became more of an universal system. However most of the rules are the same (though Endurance Reserves got a well-deserved nerf in later editions).

It isn't D&D with capes though. It takes a different view-point on gaming. D&D tends to be very "black-box" (to use the programming term) in that you have something in a book and that's it. Fireball is a 3rd level spell that does 1d6/caster level in damage. Why? Because that's how it's written in the PHB.

Champion/Hero goes with "what does a fireball do?" and build it like "6d6 Energy Blast Area of Effect (Radius) +1" and has the special effects "it's a ball of fire that explodes." This means more control over what you want to do but does require thought up-front on your part.

Champion/Hero isn't a good system if you want to slap some junk from books together and keep a game running on Rule Zero. However, with a bit of foresight and work, you have rules that flow well with what you want.

The difference between squares and hexes, roll over vs under, hexes (or meters) vs feet and the like shouldn't keep you up from trying new RPGs. Once you get used to a different system, such things come more easily.

[Stevo-Tron]

that's funny a friend of mine made that same power

another power of worthy note : tunneling faster then you can walk, whilst being supernaturally dense