History TabletopGame / Champions

* TheTeam:
** The ''Champions'' team of Defender, Witchcraft, Ironclad, Sapphire and Kinetic or Nighthawk
** And Zen Team, [[Franchise/SuperSentai a team of Japanese martial artists in powered suits]], published a few months before ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' first aired in the United States.
** The original Guardians were Flare, Marksman, Giant, Rose, and Gargoyle.
** There are a few villain teams from various supplements who can be said to fit the trope if you squint hard enough. The original core membership of Eurostar probably come as close as any.
** The Iron Five, from ''[[http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/123180/The-Sands-of-Time?manufacturers_id=770&filters=0_10010_0_0_0 The Sands of Time]]'', fit the trope fairly well.

** Eurostar were once described as "Evil ComicBook/XMen" due to several mutant members: Durak (Colossus), Mentalla (ComicBook/JeanGrey) and Bora (ComicBook/{{Storm}}).

* CanadaEh: Strongly averted in the ''Champions of the North'' supplement, as the historical and modern Canada sections of the book are basically essays conveying more actual information about real Canada than most Americans likely know, and a large number of heroes and villains running the gamut of the power scale (from street-level to world-threatening master villains) with relatively few stereotypes.

* InterserviceRivalry: In the original game's universe, the United States government didn't like UNTIL (a United Nations-sponsored peacekeeping organization) running around after supervillains within its borders, so they created an agency called PRIMUS to have something comparable they could point to as evidence they were fully capable of policing themselves and didn't want or need UNTIL's help. This led to badly strained relations anytime the two agencies interacted with each other. The rebooted continuity from Fifth Edition-onward has had this radically decreased, mainly because of the blowback from the Battle of Detroit (short version, a battle with a supervillain led to Detroit being completely wiped out, and the damage would've been greatly lessened if PRIMUS had been friendlier with UNTIL, who had intel that it was about to happen).

* RainbowMotif: The supervillainess Spectra's attacks are color coded. We also have the team Spectrum from ''Champions Presents #1''.

** Defender is ComicBook/IronMan, before UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}} developments of addiction to alcohol and smugness.

* TheArchmage: There are various examples in the game lore, like The Master from ''The Circle and M.E.T.E.'', who doesn't even have a character sheet and is meant to be used purely as a plot device. When the setting developed more, the title of "Archmage" became the Champions universe's equivalent to Marvel's [[ComicBook/DoctorStrange Sorcerer Supreme]] as the setting's most powerful mystic hero. It eventually became a plot hook that Earth's Archmage was killed about a hundred years ago and the post has been vacant ever since, because there isn't anyone left who knows how to train one anymore. The mystical community's getting really worried about what'll happen when a big time magical conqueror tries to attack an Earth that doesn't have an Archmage's protection (leaving it open for a player's wizard hero to assume the mantle).

** The Destroyers (later Deathstroke) started out as a fairly generic villain team, but as the setting was developed they devolved into an entire team of Butt Monkeys; the whole background section for their update in ''Champions Universe'' was the text from a meeting with an image consultant on how to make them seem less lame. After the continuity reboot they were eventually brought back but they'd lost two-thirds of their membership in an especially disastrous stroke of bad luck. The survivors have been in jail so long hardly anybody remembers them anymore.

* DarkMagicalGirl: Talisman.

* InterserviceRivalry: In the original game's universe, the United States government didn't like UNTIL (a United Nations-sponsored peacekeeping organization) running around after supervillains within its borders, so they created an agency called PRIMUS to have something comparable they could point to as evidence they were fully capable of policing themselves and didn't want or need UNTIL's help. This led to badly strained relations anytime the two agencies interacted with each other. The rebooted continuity from Fifth Edition-onward has had this greatly lessessened, mainly because of the blowback from the Battle of Detroit (short version, a battle with a supervillain led to Detroit being completely wiped out, and the damage would've been greatly lessened if PRIMUS had been friendlier with UNTIL, who had intel that it was about to happen).

* ThinksLikeARomanceNovel: The villain Tenderheart from ''Dark Champions'' believes in the delusion that life works like a romance novel and her criminal career is based around the idea that a superhero will fall in love with her.

* CompletelyOffTopicReport: In the ''Bad News for Doctor Drugs'', one of the suggested player characters has an obsession with Genghis Khan and makes all of his reports about that subject, no matter what the homework assignment subject was.

* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: by the truckload. The ''Champions'' Universe used to be described as "[[Creator/MarvelComicsBooks Marvel]] with [[SerialNumbersFiledOff the numbers filed off]]" adding "[[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Not that it's a bad thing]]". Specific examples include:

*** Nighthawk is Franchise/{{Batman}}, only with a bit of {{Film/Darkman}} influence due to having his face messed up in a VIPER robbery and attack on his college.

* AWizardDidIt: The ''Galactic Champions'' Sourcebook reveals that a high amount ambient magic is required for superpowers to work, otherwise their abilities are really impossible. This also reveals that an experiment by Nazi wizards caused the boon of Superheroes that exist in their universe.

* WorldOfChaos: One of the 4th edition adventures featured one tangentially. A pocket dimension of insanity is where Aladdin's lamp has been hidden to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Some inept wizard villain recruited the ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}-esque villain Foxbat to go in and bring it out, since he won't be affected because he's already crazy (he thinks he's a character in a superhero RPG, what a nut). Foxbat doesn't agree to hand it over once he's out, though, and it's up to the players to find some way of separating the nutty villain from his new source of ultimate power, so they can put it back in the WorldOfChaos.

* ThematicRoguesGallery: The first few roster books with premade villains were pretty generic, but eventually they started each being bound by a common them. ''Enemies: The International File'' is about supervillains who operate outside the United States. ''Red Doom'' is about villains who work for the Soviet government. ''European Enemies'' is about villains who work out of Europe. ''High-Tech Enemies'' is full of villains with a sci-fi theme. ''Alien Enemies'' is about villains and invaders from outer space. ''Enemies for Hire'' is about EliteMooks who can be hired as quick muscle for other masterminds. And so on.

* TheArchmage: There are various examples in the game lore, like The Master from ''The Circle and M.E.T.E.'', who doesn't even have a character sheet and is meant to be used purely as a plot device. When the setting developed more, the title of "Archmage" became the Champions universe's equivalent to Marvel's [[ComicBook/DoctorStrange Sorcerer Supreme]] as the setting's most powerful mystic hero. It eventually became a plot hook that Earth's Archmage was killed about a hundred years ago and the post has been vacant ever since. The mystical community's getting really worried about what'll happen when a big time magical conqueror tries to attack an Earth that doesn't have an Archmage's protection (leaving it open for a player's wizard hero to assume the mantle).

* AmuletOfConcentratedAwesome: Buying a power through an Obvious, Accessible Focus can cut its point cost in half. Which can result in a moment of YoureNothingWithoutYourPhlebotinum when (not if, ''when'') the villain takes your Focus away from you.