I was at Origins the other week. This was the first Origins I’ve been to since the convention left Baltimore for good back in 1991. I love the idea of having it float around the country, but they essentially tried that for 20 years. Since it’s been locked down in Columbus ever since, I take it that’s working out.
Regarding Champions, I’m curious if you ever tried the Marvel Super Heroes game from back in ‘84. Jeff Grubb did some wonderful things with that and I know it still has a dedicated fan base. I’ve never seen a head-to-head comparison with Champions though.
I'll be doing a series of super hero role playing game posts this month. Since it's Independent RPG month and essentially all super hero rpgs are indies, I'm going to run with it. One of those will be a Champions to Marvel FASERIP conversion article. Others will include a Gamma World 7 and Tiny Supers.
Villains & Villigantes was the first super hero RPG I got, and Champions was the second. We had a lot of fun with both of their character creation "mini games." V&V required objective self-reflection on your own personal strengths and weaknesses before letting the dice randomly turn you into a hero. Meanwhile, Champions encouraged hours of careful character design and point buy calculations. Loved them both!
The 2nd Edition of Villains & Vigilantes is an all-time classic. It had several updates from the first edition that made it far more playable. First edition is playable, but determining attack values is a bit of a challenge due to you adding up the to hit values for the "5 best defenses" to determine the required percentile roll. Shifting to an AD&D type chart really sped things up and if a GM knew what the PC's powers were, it only took a small bit of prep to make things run smoothly.
I only had 1st edition V&V. Those sound like very good changes. I just remember being excited when my real-life weight as a teenager exceeded 150 lbs so my characters got an increase in hit points!
That sounds like 2nd Edition to me. In the First Edition, hit points were based on a die roll. It wasn't until 2nd Edition that body weight affected hit points and carrying capacity. Characters got approximately 1 Hit Dice Per level (with 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th, and 15th, and 17th being exceptions). Strength bonus Hits was from -1 to +20, Constitution from -2 to +30, etc.
I'll post my review of First Edition soon so you can see the differences. It was a very different game than the Green Covered 2nd Edition.
I must have 2nd edition - thanks for the correction! I remember the body weight divided by 50 (round up!) to get your basic hits and then multiplying that by your hit point modifiers to get your hit points. I'm looking forward to your first edition review so you can further my education!
I was at Origins the other week. This was the first Origins I’ve been to since the convention left Baltimore for good back in 1991. I love the idea of having it float around the country, but they essentially tried that for 20 years. Since it’s been locked down in Columbus ever since, I take it that’s working out.
Regarding Champions, I’m curious if you ever tried the Marvel Super Heroes game from back in ‘84. Jeff Grubb did some wonderful things with that and I know it still has a dedicated fan base. I’ve never seen a head-to-head comparison with Champions though.
I'll be doing a series of super hero role playing game posts this month. Since it's Independent RPG month and essentially all super hero rpgs are indies, I'm going to run with it. One of those will be a Champions to Marvel FASERIP conversion article. Others will include a Gamma World 7 and Tiny Supers.
It should be a good time.
Villains & Villigantes was the first super hero RPG I got, and Champions was the second. We had a lot of fun with both of their character creation "mini games." V&V required objective self-reflection on your own personal strengths and weaknesses before letting the dice randomly turn you into a hero. Meanwhile, Champions encouraged hours of careful character design and point buy calculations. Loved them both!
The 2nd Edition of Villains & Vigilantes is an all-time classic. It had several updates from the first edition that made it far more playable. First edition is playable, but determining attack values is a bit of a challenge due to you adding up the to hit values for the "5 best defenses" to determine the required percentile roll. Shifting to an AD&D type chart really sped things up and if a GM knew what the PC's powers were, it only took a small bit of prep to make things run smoothly.
I only had 1st edition V&V. Those sound like very good changes. I just remember being excited when my real-life weight as a teenager exceeded 150 lbs so my characters got an increase in hit points!
That sounds like 2nd Edition to me. In the First Edition, hit points were based on a die roll. It wasn't until 2nd Edition that body weight affected hit points and carrying capacity. Characters got approximately 1 Hit Dice Per level (with 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th, and 15th, and 17th being exceptions). Strength bonus Hits was from -1 to +20, Constitution from -2 to +30, etc.
I'll post my review of First Edition soon so you can see the differences. It was a very different game than the Green Covered 2nd Edition.
I must have 2nd edition - thanks for the correction! I remember the body weight divided by 50 (round up!) to get your basic hits and then multiplying that by your hit point modifiers to get your hit points. I'm looking forward to your first edition review so you can further my education!
Superhero RPGs are my obsession.