Jump to content

Champions Classics


Recommended Posts

Posted (edited)

Thank Ben for all his terrific art over the years for us all! Let him know that his name is first on the top of the info box, it got cut off along with the #10 (this will be the 10th Champions Classics adventure released, at least as planned right now).

 

And Jason told me directly that I am free to use the stuff from Adventurer's Club.

Edited by Christopher R Taylor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted (edited)

OK I did some tweaking to the cover art, I'm less interested in this particular cover (the Ben Dunn art is magnificent) but rather the layout and feel of the cover as a template.  I'm not sure on the price, they will be pretty inexpensive.  These are short little adventures, like 15 pages at most.

Edited by Christopher R Taylor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/28/2024 at 1:55 PM, Christopher R Taylor said:

Update: The Haymaker content is owned by the writers, and I have no contact with most of them, so I am going to put those aside and not rebiuld them.  A shame, there's 17 and some real gems in them.  I might work with Bob Greenwade if I can get hold of him, to do the Invasion of the Gweenies adventure.  I'd rig it so he got all the profits, I just want it available.

 

FWIW you have my permission to use any of my Haymaker content.  (I'll PM you my actual name.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

One of the things I am looking for is to avoid using the same villains too often.  VIPER has a potential role in a couple of adventures, and some of them have their own villain teams specific to the scenario.  But I am running up against some limitations: there really aren't that many supervillain groups in the Champions Universe suited for this kind of and level of adventure, especially in 6th edition where almost everyone got an Ultimates/Image boost in power.  I am hesitant to make up my own bad guys, though.  I mean I have tons, my own Champions setting has scores of bad guys to pull from but it wouldn't feel like I am remaking a classic if I put new stuff in.

 

Unrelated, have the other side members of the Tiger Squad been written up other than the few in Champions Enemies 2?

Edited by Christopher R Taylor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

One of the things I am looking for is to avoid using the same villains too often.  VIPER has a potential role in a couple of adventures, and some of them have their own villain teams specific to the scenario.  But I am running up against some limitations: there really aren't that many supervillain groups in the Champions Universe suited for this kind of and level of adventure, especially in 6th edition where almost everyone got an Ultimates/Image boost in power.  I am hesitant to make up my own bad guys, though.  I mean I have tons, my own Champions setting has scores of bad guys to pull from but it wouldn't feel like I am remaking a classic if I put new stuff in.

Check with Villain Volume 3 and have them as hierlings or mercenaries.

25 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

Unrelated, have the other side members of the Tiger Squad been written up other than the few in Champions Enemies 2?

Nope. In 6ed they were in Villain Volume 2. But...there were more published in 5ed (see Champions Worldwide).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

One of the things I am looking for is to avoid using the same villains too often.  VIPER has a potential role in a couple of adventures, and some of them have their own villain teams specific to the scenario.  But I am running up against some limitations: there really aren't that many supervillain groups in the Champions Universe suited for this kind of and level of adventure, especially in 6th edition where almost everyone got an Ultimates/Image boost in power.  I am hesitant to make up my own bad guys, though.  I mean I have tons, my own Champions setting has scores of bad guys to pull from but it wouldn't feel like I am remaking a classic if I put new stuff in.

 

 

If you aren't determined to use teams of villains already written up to be a team, I have two suggestions. One would be to look at Champions Villains Volume Three. There are quite a few lower-powered solo villains who could easily be kit-bashed into ad hoc teams.

My other suggestion would be the Fifth Edition book, Dark Champions: The Animated Series, which was designed to be a source book for "street level" supers, in the vein of Batman or Daredevil. It includes a fair selection of villains, most of whom were originally published for the Fourth Edition Dark Champions book line.

 

1 hour ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

Unrelated, have the other side members of the Tiger Squad been written up other than the few in Champions Enemies 2?

 

There are two parts to my answer. While not including character sheets and write-ups, Champions Universe p. 49 sidebar lists the names of twenty-eight Tiger Squad members, with extremely brief descriptions of what character archetype each one fits into. The list includes the five from CV2. However, four of those other names match Tiger Squad members written up in the Fourth Edition book, Watchers of the Dragon; and three of those four in WotD also match the archetypes given for them in CU.

 

1 hour ago, Stanley Teriaca said:

Nope. In 6ed they were in Villain Volume 2. But...there were more published in 5ed (see Champions Worldwide).

 

To clarify, no specific Tiger Squad members appear in or are named in Champions Worldwide. The only ones for Fifth Edition are in Villains, Vandals, And Vermin, but they're the same ones as are reprinted in CV2.

Edited by Lord Liaden
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

To clarify, no specific Tiger Squad members appear in or are named in Champions Worldwide. The only ones for Fifth Edition are in Villains, Vandals, And Vermin, but they're the same ones as are reprinted in CV2.

My bad. I was sure there were some members in 5ed products which were never brought over. My mistake.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Stanley Teriaca said:

My bad. I was sure there were some members in 5ed products which were never brought over. My mistake.

 

No apology necessary. 5E produced a lot of stuff to keep track of. I just wanted to make sure nobody goes looking for something in a book that doesn't have it. :)

 

While there were no other Tiger Squad members written up for 5E, as I indicated, the 4E Watchers of the Dragon does include a few who weren't carried over to later editions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I have used just some interesting villains from volume 3 as a team (for Fort Knox and Terror in the Treasures, especially).  I used GRAB as a villain option for Ft Knox but not officially yet, but they are a particular kind of team.  Several others can work but I keep running into overpowered villains in these teams.  600, 700, 900 points.  I get that not everyone should be exactly at the power level of the PCs but for crying out loud, I can't use 1000 point villains as a team against starting Champions characters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its easy to do, the problem is I'm referring to them in the adventure and don't want to explain every time how to depower them or write up a de-powered version in the adventure.  The idea is for the adventure to be ready to go out of the box, using the Champions Universe.    did already have to write up a more modestly powered Slug for Terror in the Treasures.

 

I do like the idea of the DC:TAS versions though, I had not thought of that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I didn't realize you were just going to refer to characters in other books, and not actually include write-ups for them in the adventures. I'm rather concerned about that, since one of the most frequent complaints I saw for the dedicated Champions adventures published under Fifth Edition, like Champions Battlegrounds and Shades Of Black, is that they didn't include all the characters you needed to run the adventures with the adventure itself.

 

I personally wouldn't see it as problematic, since I'm already a dedicated Champs gamer. But if your goal is to draw the average gamer into Champions by publishing adventures people can run "out of the box," I fear that will work against you.

Edited by Lord Liaden
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Meh, D&D became the biggest RPG in the world putting out adventures with references to the Monster Manual LOL.  I don't see this as a drawback.

 

How commonly owned will the books you reference be? D&D has online SRD's for most monsters, Hero lacks that.

 

I guess as a compromise, you could post the stat blocs online. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Meh, D&D became the biggest RPG in the world putting out adventures with references to the Monster Manual LOL.  I don't see this as a drawback.

I would suggest you don't do this, as there is not an affordable book with stats for villains in it. You DON'T want to force GMs to buy tons of expensive books just to get the stats of say six or more villains. Don't assume everyone will have the same books you do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

My goal is to get people to buy adventures, and to buy more Hero products.  Reprinting stuff from existing books is money out of the pockets of Hero

It is a catch 22 then. If people can't afford a 30 or 40 dollar book, they will hate you for forcing you into buying a 30 or 40 dollar book. They will love you if you save them the cost, at least minorly and temporarily till they feel they can afford it.

 

Unless you absolutely stamp a "Must Have Item X, Y, and Z To Play" across it and put the reason clear to the potential customer. Now days you can't find many specialised gaming shops around, let alone any which would carry Hero Games products. Go ahead. Go to your local game shop. Snap a photo of the number of Hero Games products.

 

And I know there are online stores. Unless your already familiar with Hero Games products, you wouldn't know exactly what to search for, let alone what to find.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Meh, D&D became the biggest RPG in the world putting out adventures with references to the Monster Manual LOL.  I don't see this as a drawback.

 

Yeah, but that's D&D. The game everyone has heard of. They're the 500 lb. gorilla, we're a rhesus monkey with ambition.

 

Also, it was the Monster Manual. The creature book for all occasions. D&D didn't start adding more books like it until after it was well established. Champions today has three volumes just for villains, and different categories of villains at that.

 

I'm not saying don't do what you're doing, just that it may be more problematic than you think.

Edited by Lord Liaden
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...