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Champions Game Aids

Champions games can last for years, and Champions gamemasters might occasionally have trouble coming up with new ideas for their Champions campaigns. So having ready access to a long list of Champions character builds, backgrounds, and other resources can help inspire you or give you a crutch if you need to run an adventure tonight, yet have nothing in mind.

Even if you have plenty of Champions plot ideas on your own, some Champions GMs need help getting organized. So further down this page, I'll point the direction of one of the best game aids a Champions player can ever have--though it costs a little money. Champions campaigns and The Hero System games involve a significant amount of paperwork, so having a tool that cuts down on the paperwork--or at least gives you a chance to print off sheets instead of handwriting them--lets you become more efficient and better organized in putting together your Champions campaign.

Champions Campaign Resources

Most of this next list of Champions resources contains ideas from Champions RPG players nice enough to post their own ideas online. Some might discuss tips and suggestions for running Champions campaigns, lists of made-up Champions characters complete with origins and back stories, Champions house rules that worked for other groups, and even alternate dimensions to either send your heroes to explore--or use as campaign settings.

David West's Champions Page - Includes David "Lightfinger" West's contributions to the Champions Universe, including Murderer's Row from Dark Champions, The Adventurer's Club, and the revised World League of Crime.

Super System Switching - For that odd crazyman who wants to convert The Hero System to GURPS, for some odd reason. If you always wanted a comparison of the stats and powers from The Hero System and GURPS, here's a good comparison.

Deadly's Heroes Champions Suggestions - Offers articles on playing Champions, suggested Champions house rules, links to other useful Champions websites, and Champions character ideas.

Tony Jones Champions Page - Has a list of Champions worlds and Champions campaign ideas, including 9 complete worlds for your Champions to visit, as well as other system-related information, scenarios, and even a smattering of new powers and martial arts.

Champions Write-Ups - Three Champions hero teams, one villain team, and a selection of fantasy heroes. If you're a GM looking for villain teams to run, remember that hero teams are easily converted into antagonists. Just look at the Justice League/Squadron Sinister.

Hero Machine - This isn't Champions-specific, but it's a fun software program you can use to create character sketches of your superhero player characters. For those visual roleplayers who need a picture of a character for inspiration, this is an invaluable tool (if you aren't an artist...artists might look down on such things).

Champions Player Finder

Go to the Champions Player Finder section of the Official Champions Forum to find Champions players in your area, which is one of the main concerns for some gaming groups. Post where you live and when you want to play and find volunteers. It goes without saying, but be careful around strangers you meet online.

Follow links from this page to find the larger official Champions forum. You can probably find the main forum yourself, so I wanted to link to the player finder section, to help groups struggling to find Champions players.

Champions Hero Designer Software

Champions Hero Designer software lets you design player character and non-player characters through a computer interface, letting the program do most of the calculation for you. Once you're finished, you have a handy resource for printing off the character sheet. Go to the Hero Games Designer Software page to buy the product. I should mention that the cost is $25, so if you are looking for free Champions game aids, you might want to skip this section of the article.

Hero Designer lets you design characters, download already-designed characters from the electronic Champions resources, or collect the character packs from Hero Games PDFs you buy online. Once you have these in your computer, you'll be able to print off huge numbers of character sheets. This is useful for Champions players and gamemasters alike, though mostly for gamemasters. In fact, with the Hero Designer software, a computer, and a printer, you'll never have to stat out your own Champions villains again. Besides the e-published character packs, there's thousands of write-ups online at the "Hero Designer Vault" which the software lets you download.

The Hero Designer License

When you buy The Hero Designer package, you get a 2-year license. After that time, you won't be able to get new updates and upgrades to the product, and you won't be able to access the Hero Designer Vault. You will be able to use the software as it is on your computer, and continue to fill out character sheets using that software.

Hero Designer Character Packs

You can buy character packs for all the characters found in certain Fifth and Sixth Edition Champions books at the online roleplaying pdf sites like Drive-By RPG and RPG Now. These are found under the "Hero Games" section and have titles like "Champions Solo Villains Character Pack" and "Champions Villain Teams Character Pack". These are designed to give you discounts off of buying the entire PDF release, cutting it down to the content GMs use in a game session.

• Champions Villains Complete Character Pack
• Champions Solo Villains
• Champions Villain Teams
• Champions Master Villains
• Champions Universe Character Pack
• Champions 6th Edition Character Pack
• Hero System 6th Edition Core Book
• Book of the Machine HD Character Pack
• Villainy Amok
• Vibora Bay
• VIPER: Coils of the Serpent
• UNTIL: Defenders of Freedom
• The Ultimate Speedster
• The Ultimate Metamorph
• The Ultimate Brick
• Teen Champions Character Pack
• Sharper Than a Serpents Tooth
• Mystic World Character Pack
• Monster Island
• PS238 Character Pack
• Hidden Lands
• Galactic Champions
• Gadgets and Gear
• Evil Unleashed Character Pack
• Everyman Character Pack
• Demon Character Pack
• Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks
• Champions Worldwide Character Pack
• Arcane Adversaries
• Villains, Vandals, and Vermin
• Millenium City Character Packs
• Cops, Crews, and Cabals
• Book of the Destroyer

Most of these are 5th edition books, but as the 6th edition publications come to PDF, more character packs will appear for that line of books. One complaint I have with Hero Games is that their PDF releases are a lot more expensive than their competitors' releases. That might not be so bad, except their PDF products in the Fifth Edition wouldn't allow you to copy-and-paste text into your own files, which I like to do in roleplaying books to get the exact information I want (and other companies usually allow). I suppose Hero Games may not have wanted people posting this stuff online for public consumption, but I had more than one grumble trying to prepare adventures and finding I had to transcribe the information I wanted, print off large sections of the book, or sift through my bound copy. That problem seems gone from 6th edition books, though the pricing issues remain.

Hero Designer character packs are a good way to get essential information placed in the Hero Designer format, especially if you have the printed copy of the book and you don't need the full writeups of NPC characters.

Hero System Game Aids

These are just a few of the Champions game resources you'll find on the Internet. The great thing about playing a roleplaying system that has been around thirty years and has a large fan following is that some of those devoted players are going to post good content online. Another advantage of using the Hero System is the large and helpful community found at the Champions forums. So if these Champions game aids don't solve your problems, search a little longer and I'm sure someone has posted what you need.